The meeting of the committees on foreign affairs of the parliaments of the Visegrád Countries took place in Budapest on 4 December in the building of the Hungarian National Assembly, organized by the Hungarian Presidency of the Visegrád Cooperation. The event was hosted by Zsolt Németh, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Hungarian National Assembly. From the committee the meeting was also attended by Vice-Chairs Hajnalka Juhász, Mihály Balla and Attila Tilki.

The discussion focused on two topics. The first agenda item had the title “Where and how should the Visegrád Cooperation go on? The role and future of the V4 in a rapidly and drastically changing European geopolitical environment”, on which topic János Bóka, Minister for European Union Affairs, delivered a keynote speech. The minister described the cooperation of the countries of the Visegrád Group (V4) as a regional community of shared destiny. The title of the second item on the agenda was “Hopes for a new transatlantic beginning in the history of the V4 during Donald Trump's second term as US president. The role of the Visegrád Cooperation and Central Europe in the development of transatlantic relations between Europe and the US”. On this subject keynote speeches were given by Boglárka Illés, State Secretary for Bilateral Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, as well as by Márton Ugrósdy, Deputy State Secretary at the Head of the Office of the Prime Minister's Political Director.

In addition to the Hungarian Members of Parliament, Radek Vondráček, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Czech Chamber of Deputies, Jindrich Rajchi, member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Tomas Jirsa, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Czech Senate, also made contributions to the topics on the agenda. 

The participants agreed that the time had come to rebirth the Visegrád cooperation, which required the involvement of all Visegrád partners. The need to institutionalize cooperation between the parliaments of the V4 countries was also raised, a topic that had been on the agenda of Visegrád parliamentary cooperation in previous years. According to Zsolt Németh, the deep historical, cultural, economic, and other roots and interests between the Visegrád countries, justify the institutionalization of cooperation. The participants of the event also considered it important to exploit the opportunities offered by the V4+ format and emphasized their commitment to cooperation with the EU and NATO.

+ Photos (Office of the Hungarian National Assembly)