Following talks with his Slovak counterpart, Peter Pellegrini, in Bratislava on Thursday, President Tamás Sulyok said Hungary and Slovakia share the goal of "filling good neighborly relations, built on mutual trust, with content despite challenges of the 21st century".

The president said the talks focused on bilateral ties and regional cooperation, with special regard to defence ties such as planning and exercises within the auspices of NATO. He noted that Hungary's contribution to the protection of Slovakia's airspace was "an important security policy component".

President Sulyok said bilateral ties with Slovakia were improving with "unprecedented intensity and mutual trust", and pointed to a "vivacious political dialogue" and infrastructure developments on both sides of the Hungary-Slovakia border.

He said Hungary will place special emphasis on the development of regional ties during its six-month presidency of the Visegrad Group, which it assumes on July 1. Sulyok also expressed hope that the central European cooperation would be given new momentum, and that the upcoming summit of V4 presidents would help deepen the grouping’s strategic significance.

President Sulyok said that at their talks, he and Pellegrini were in agreement on their support for speeding up the Western Balkans region’s European integration, arguing that the region was crucial for European unity.

Energy security, he said, was also crucial to both countries, adding that nuclear energy, the increased use of renewable resources and the expansion of infrastructure links could boost regional energy security.

The V4 countries also had to be united in their opposition to migration as well as their push for the protection of the EU’s external borders and the stabilisation of migrants’ countries of origin.

Meanwhile, President Sulyok said Hungary viewed both its ethnic Slovak minority and the ethnic Hungarian community in Slovakia as assets.