Tbilisi Mayor, Hungarian FM discuss friendly relations, partnership

Friendly and partnership relations between Georgia and Hungary as well as the prospects for their deepening were discussed on Monday in a meeting between the Mayor of Tbilisi Kakha Kaladze, who is on an official visit to Budapest, and Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó.

Szijjártó congratulated Mayor of Tbilisi on his re-election in the local elections and noted that the results shown by Kaladze in the elections once again confirmed the unwavering support of voters from Tbilisi for him.

The Foreign Minister conveyed support from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to Kaladze.

“It is a great honor for us that Mayor of Tbilisi Kaladze is visiting us at the Ministry. It is very rare for a two-time champion to visit this building. We enjoyed this meeting and considered it a great honor. I am proud that we have known each other personally for a long time. We rarely observe local elections in foreign countries, because this is a domestic matter. However, in this case, we were supporting Mr. Kaladze to win the elections in Tbilisi again. He won by a large margin, which clearly shows how satisfied the citizens of Tbilisi are with his work”, Szijjártó said.

The top Hungarian diplomat asked Kaladze to give lectures to the Mayor of Budapest, saying “I am sure he can give good advice regarding the management of the capital”.

He further noted that the Hungarian Government was proud of “excellent relationship” with Georgia and the ruling Georgian Dream party.

“We are proud that this is about the cooperation of two governments that are patriots, supporters of sovereignty and peace. I told Mayor Kaladze that we, Hungarians, will always support Georgia and will not allow the European Union to impose sanctions on Georgian leaders. Hungarians know very well what it means to swim against the current and not be in line with the liberal mainstream. However, perhaps this is one of the reasons why the Hungarian people support us. Since your Government also pursues patriotic policies, that is why Georgia supports it”, Szijjártó noted.

In turn, the Mayor of Tbilisi thanked the Hungarian Government for the support it has shown to Georgia.

“We talked about everything at the meeting, with special attention paid to the pseudo-liberal ideology, which has become entrenched and represents a huge problem, a serious challenge at the moment. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Hungary, its Government, and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for the support and cooperation of the Georgian people and our state. We are glad that both Georgia and Hungary are fighting for the truth. This is very important”, he concluded.

The meeting also discussed the current events in the South Caucasus region as well as the difficult situation caused by the Russia-Ukraine war.

“We see the processes underway and we all have great hope that the tragedy that is unfortunately happening in Ukraine will end soon”, Kaladze said.