Hungary wants Georgia-EU visa free regime “immediately”

Hungary’s top foreign official has today voiced his country’s strong support for Georgia’s European and Euro-Atlantic integration.

Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who was in Tbilisi to attend the Ambassadorial meeting, said Hungary wanted to see the immediate introduction of a visa-free regime between Georgia and the European Union (EU).

Great honor 2 host our good friend, FM Szijjártó #Hungary.Highly value excellent bilateral relations bw 2 countries pic.twitter.com/cfHZvW7B1k

— Mikheil Janelidze (@JanelidzeMkh) July 27, 2016

"Georgia should be provided with a visa-free regime with the EU immediately. And when I say ‘immediately’ I mean immediately because the Georgian Government has fulfilled all the necessary requirements and there is no reason to suspend its visa-free regime,” the Hungarian top diplomat said.

He added Hungary also supported Georgia’s bid for NATO membership.

"Being a significant contributor to NATO’s efforts, we want Georgia to be invited to NATO as soon as possible,” Szijjarto said.

"We wanted to provide Georgia with a Membership Action Plan in Warsaw. Unfortunately we didn’t succeed but both the EU and NATO integration process must be accelerated.”

Szijjarto stressed Hungary attached "very significant importance” to the enhancement of bilateral cooperation between Hungary and Georgia when it came to economic and political cooperation, but the primary reason why he came to Georgia was to show that Hungary’s government strongly supported Georgia’s European and Euro-Atlantic integration path.

Szijjarto also said Hungary had always been very committed to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia and it would always "remain this way”.

The Hungarian Minister stressed his country had nine officials in the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia and Hungary intended to send observers to monitor the October 8 Parliamentary Elections upon Georgia’s request.