House Speaker László Kövér held talks with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Parliament on Tuesday.

At the meeting, Kövér highlighted the "deep-rooted" sympathy between the two countries and their peoples, adding that both nations were proud of their history, culture and traditions, and valued the independence they had fought for.

"We are grateful for the gestures Uzbekistan has made towards Hungary, and we greatly appreciate our dialogue based on mutual respect," Kövér said, adding that the two countries wanted to extend their strategic partnership to closer cooperation between their parliaments and strengthening the relations between their friendship groups and committees.

Mirziyoyev expressed his appreciation for Hungary’s active role in the Organisation of Turkic States, and that, like Uzbekistan, Hungary also strove for the operation of multilateral diplomatic relations based on mutual and equal cooperation.

Kövér said Hungary considered western European efforts to bring back blocs "very dangerous", and did not want to become the periphery of "another empire".

Hungary, Kövér said, aimed to be a connecting and meeting point between East and West and was seeking opportunities for cooperation rather than conflict.

Mirziyoyev is on an official visit to Hungary at the invitation of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán with the purpose of strengthening bilateral economic, trade, parliamentary and cultural cooperation. He is also attending the informal summit of the Organisation of Turkic States.