Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (R) shakes hands with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Groysman after signing an agreement before a joint press conference in Budapest, capital of Hungary, on Nov. 24, 2016. Hungary fully supports European Union membership for Ukraine, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Thursday. (Xinhua/Attila Volgyi)
BUDAPEST, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Hungary fully supports European Union membership for Ukraine, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Thursday.
Addressing a news conference after a meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, he acknowledged Ukraine still had a way to go before it could actually join the bloc.
Orban also called on the EU to make life easier for Ukraine by granting its citizens visa-exempt travel and by concluding a free trade agreement with it.
The European Union has a moral obligation to grant it the visa-exemption, Orban said. In the meantime, he underlined, Hungary has resolved to immediately introduce a free-of-charge national visa to Ukrainians.
Hungary and Ukraine have signed an agreement on the most significant economic and infrastructural program in the history of the two countries, Orban reported. Hungary, he added, is making 50 million euros (52.8 million dollars) available to start and implement the program.
Hungary, he said, is offering 2 billion forints (6.8 million U.S. dollars) for the development of the Ukrainian economy this year, and will add 5.2 billion forints next year.
Trade between Ukraine and Hungary dropped by 33 percent because of Ukraine's difficult situation, Orban said, but has gone up by 11 percent in the first eight months of 2016.
On his part, Groysman said there were excellent opportunities for boosting cooperation, and officials had an obligation to achieve effective and successful cooperation, primarily to benefit the citizens of their countries.
Groysman underlined that he was proud to have a Hungarian minority in his country. All people living in Ukraine should be at home there, he said, adding that the joint efforts planned with the Hungarian government were aimed at serving that goal.
Groysman announced that on Friday he would participate in a Hungarian-Ukrainian business forum to let the business world know that the two countries wanted to tighten relations. Ukraine, he said, was now on a growth orbit thanks to internal reforms, having grown by 1.8 percent this year.
The two statesmen signed a credit agreement and a memorandum of intent to cooperate in infrastructural development, while delegation officials concluded a sports agreement.
