Hungary/Brazil – After visiting the Kremlin the previous day to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro made an official visit to Budapest on Thursday, 17 February where he held talks with his Hungarian counterpart János Áder and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. It was the first time a Brazilian head of state has ever made an official visit to Hungary.
“A family is a man and a woman”
Jair Bolsonaro and Viktor Orbán held talks and signed memorandums of understanding on cooperation in the areas of defence, humanitarian aid (support for persecuted Christian communities in Africa), and water and sanitation management. At a joint press conference following their talks, Viktor Orbán, who shares many views with the Brazilian president, particularly stressed their common attachment to the traditional family:
“A man and a woman make a family, and we will do everything possible at all levels to ensure that this concept is not relativised.”
“Coalition of the Sane”
He also stressed their agreement on the migration issue: “We have the same approach to migration. (…)
There are still some of us – what we call a coalition of the sane – who do not want the world to change because of migration.
For his part, the Brazilian president stressed the importance of Hungarian-Brazilian relations:
“We only spent a short time in Hungary, but it will have a huge impact on our nations.”
Among other things, the Hungarian prime minister announced that Brazil is ready to receive Hungarian investments, and the pharmaceutical company Richter was named as the first example of this. Jair Bolsonaro called Hungary a “little big brother”: small in size, but a leader in the defence of common values.