Macut: Good relations with Hungary to help Serbia on EU path

BUDAPEST - Serbia's caretaker PM Djuro Macut said on Friday in Budapest, where he attended a ceremony that marked the 70th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, that Serbia-Hungary relations had been traditionally good in recent years and would help Serbia on the EU path.

In a statement to Serbian media outlets, Macut said he had briefly met with Hungarian PM Peter Magyar and that they would hold a discussion later in the evening, in what would be the first meeting between a Serbian official and the new Hungarian PM.

"I think we will have some discussion topics, and that will be my first opportunity to also meet with the new Hungarian PM and, certainly, to say that we are always here and that we should continue on already established paths: our mutual relations and all that is actually connecting our nations, and the opening of a new rail line between Belgrade and Budapest will definitely be one of them," Macut said.

He added that the rail line would be opened by the New Year, likely within a month or two.

He noted that the Serbs and Hungarians had exceptional historical ties, above all, in terms of the Serb and Hungarian communities living in Hungary and Serbia, respectively, as well as economically and in terms of transport.

"Today, we know that building mutual cooperation, mutual understanding and building bridges between nations can lead to a better future and prosperity to the benefit of both our nations. Our history tells us that, in the future, too, building our mutual relations upon mutual trust, a desire to build our future together and to forge ties, infrastructurally, economically, in education and in every other way, will help us set off for Europe together and give the region we are in a European perspective, and together be a part of the European community and make our nations a part of the great European nations," Macut noted.

He also said the ceremony had demonstrated that the universal values of freedom, independence and a desire of nations to live in peace and harmony represented a symbol of freedom and universal values.