“Cape Verde is a country that has a responsible approach to the issue of migration”, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Péter Szijjártó said in a public statement, this week while on official visit to Praia, the capital of Cape Verde.
“The European Commission often attempts to portray the whole continent as a group of countries in which every state is working on ways to send its own citizens towards Europe. They are attempting to portray Africa as a continent that is trying to free itself of the burdens created by its increasing population.
This is not true of all African countries, and is also not true in the case of Cape Verde”, Szijjarto underlined, adding: “The Republic of Cape Verde needs its own citizens; it doesn’t want to send them away, it wants to keep them”.
In addition to taking its cooperation with the European Union seriously, the Republic of Cape Verde is protecting its own borders and has introduced major border defence and security measures.
For this reason, Hungary has called for the EU to take the development of its relations with Cape Verde seriously. Within the field of the economy, Cape Verde is calling for the European Union to sign a bilateral economic partnership agreement with the country.
“We must assist countries that have a serious and responsible approach to issues that directly affect the security of Europe”, Szijjártó said, pointing out: “We can be sure that Cape Verde will not be a source of mass migration, and that it will in all cases introduce measures relating to its own security and that of Europe in cooperation with Europe”.
Both parties would like to tighten economic cooperation in the interests of facilitating stability in the Republic of Cape Verde and to also facilitate the interests of Hungarian businesses.
“Within the framework of this cooperation, Hungarian enterprises will be realising investment projects in the country that contribute to reinforcing the stability of the Republic of Cape Verde through improving the productivity of agriculture, and via projects required to develop water management.