On the 7th of September 2022, Katalin Novák, President of Hungary paid a one-day-long official visit to Bucharest on the invitation of Klaus Iohannis, President of Romania. The President of Romania invited his Hungarian counterpart following the B9 Summit in Bucharest on 10th June this year. Prior to that, the last presidential visit to Bucharest took place in 2010 while the Romanian President paid a visit to Budapest for the last time in 2009. Following the official meeting with President Klaus Iohannis, President Katalin Novák held talks with Alina Gorghiu, President of the Senate, Marcel Ciolacu, President of the Chamber of Deputies, Nicolae Ciuca, Prime Minister as well as Hunor Kelemen, Deputy Prime Minister, President of UDMR and all UDMR-ministers. At the Calvineum Church, President Katalin Novák also attended a social event of the Hungarian community living in Bucharest.
The topics discussed during the meeting with President Iohannis were inter alia Romania’s accession to the Schengen area, the situation of ethnic Hungarians living in Romania and the use of their mother tongue, the support for refugees from Ukraine, finding solutions to energy-supply and energy-dependence issues. According to President Katalin Novák, “this meeting gave us the opportunity to look each other in the eye and discuss the most important questions pertaining to our nations, and to open a new chapter in our cooperation”. The Hungarian head of state believes that since Hungary and Romania are neighbouring countries it is necessary for the relations to develop well, and they shall work to this end in the future. They also agreed that they wish to rather reduce than increase existing tensions. President Katalin Novák believes in the pragmatic, good and modern relationship between Hungary and Romania.
