Balázs Hankó, Minister of Culture and Innovation, has discussed ways to improve and tighten cooperation between the Hungarian government and institutions involved in culture, education and family affairs during a two-day visit to Szekler Land and Transylvania.

Minister Hankó told MTI that he had held talks on Tuesday with officials from Harghita County and Miercurea Ciuc (Csikszereda), Romanian Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Barna Tanczos.

He added that on Wednesday he had met leaders of the Sapientia – Hungarian University of Transylvania in Sfantu Gheorghe (Sepsiszentgyörgy) and viewed the location for a planned new university campus. He said they had discussed the university’s plans to become one of the top ten universities in Romania for which the Hungarian government would also provide support.

Minister Hankó added that he had also held talks with the Mayor of Sfantu Gheorghe, Arpad Antal, as well as the heads of local institutions. He said that at a meeting with the theatre directors of Sfantu Gheorghe and Targu Secuiesc (Kézdivásárhely) they had discussed ways to boost activities involving children, considering that 2025 has been designated as a year for children in the county.

János Lázár, Minister of Transport and Construction, said on Wednesday that the United States’ decision to put Antal Rogán, Head of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet Office, on a sanctions list is an “unfounded political provocation”.

Responding to a question at a press conference on another subject, Minister Lázár said: “The decision of a failed government with only weeks left in power, based on the petty revenge of a failed and unsuccessful US ambassador, cannot be taken seriously.”

Further, the statement on systemic corruption in strategic sectors “is a lie, plain and simple”, he said.

Minister Lázár said the move was a crude interference with Hungarian sovereignty and domestic affairs, “unusual and unfair from an ally”, and harmful to US-Hungarian ties. “Neither side of the aisle can dispute that the innocence or guilt of a Hungarian citizen is for the Hungarian state to decide,” he said.

Minister Lázár said Hungary’s government stands by Antal Rogán. The government will contact the Trump administration as soon as he is inaugurated to clear up the issue within a legal procedure, and will take a stand for Rogán “as we would for any other Hungarian citizen”, he said.

He said the sanctions list was “an excellent tool in the US’ hands to put pressure on a country and push through its own views and interests”. Asked whether he had seen proof of the actions that had landed Rogán on the list, Lazar said “I suspect this is more based on suggestions.”

He said he had seen no proof of wrongdoing in the case of Ildikó Vida either, a former head of the Hungarian tax and customs authority who was put on a sanctions list in 2014.

Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the government incentives generated HUF 4,000bn of investments in 2024, making it the second-biggest year on record.

Minister Szijjártó said the government had signed agreements with 77 companies, including 23 Hungarian ones, on those investments. Investments by seven Chinese companies accounted for half of the investment volume, he added, noting big projects by companies from South Korea and Japan, too.

“The strategy of economic neutrality is working,” he said. He added that investments by Chinese, South Korean and Japanese companies had accounted for close to 80pc of investment volume last year, validating the success of the government’s Eastern Opening policy.

German companies made up the fourth-biggest group of investors, US companies the fifth-biggest and Swiss companies the seventh-biggest, he said. The vehicle and electronics industries were the backbone of new investments last year, followed by projects in the food sector, he added.

Nineteen agreements were signed on high value added projects involving business services, IT investments and R+D, he said. The locations of new investments show the East-West imbalance in Hungary is a thing of the past, he added.

Minister Szijjártó said changes had marked the start of a new era in the global economy with increased competition to attract investments. He added that the winners of that new era would be countries that could attract cutting-edge technology investments.

Hungary performed “extraordinarily well” in that respect last year, he said.

Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the government is protecting utility price reductions even after the 20 percent rise in gas prices in Europe on the back of Ukraine’s decision to cease gas deliveries from Russia.

“By now even the most fanatic Brusselites don’t contest that the European Union’s competitiveness had deteriorated sharply,” Minister Szijjártó said on Facebook. Gas prices, which are now higher in Europe than in most competing countries, are one of the main reasons for this, he added.

“At the same time, European natural gas prices have increased mostly due to measures that deliberately cut the amount of gas delivered, such as sanctions or other political steps to cut out certain resources or the closing of certain delivery routes,” he said. “Europeans are clearly the ones most harmed by those measures.”

Meanwhile, Hungary made an effort to diversify its delivery routes in recent years, Minister Szijjártó said, adding that this ensured the security of energy supplies, “even if we do feel the impact of rising European prices”.

Since the decision to scrap the transit route leading through Ukraine to central and eastern Europe in mid-December, the price of gas in European markets has jumped by 20 percent, he added.

“Ukraine’s decision has again put the European economy in a difficult situation, even though the country is a candidate for accession,” he added.

Minister Szijjártó said that since Ukraine’s move had been especially harmful to central Europe, he had discussed the situation with Slovak counterpart Juraj Blanar.

“We were in agreement that the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement should be honoured by both parties and that the pact also has provisions on keeping up energy delivery routes.”

Minister Szijjártó said that during the debates surrounding the construction of the TurkStream pipeline a few years ago, “we were threatened by our allies, who tried to dissuade us from the investment in a friendly way,” he said.

Landlocked Hungary would now be in a tight spot had it not withstood the “friendly” pressure then, Minister Szijjártó said.

He said that under the current circumstances, Hungary’s energy supply was secure. At the same time, he said that Ukraine’s decision to turn off the gas taps had led to higher prices, posing yet another challenge to the competitiveness of central Europe and the EU.

“Still, Hungary will continue to protect the achievements of its utility price caps, even in this challenging environment, and we will continue the cooperation with our partners in the region,” he said.

David Cornstein, a former US ambassador to Hungary, told public media on Wednesday that the US decision to include Antal Rogán, the minister leading the Hungarian Cabinet Office, on a sanctions list is “terrible and shameful”.

Cornstein said the “move by outgoing ambassador David Pressman” was an example of the current US administration’s hostile stance towards Hungary, “right down to the last hour”.

While the Biden and Obama administrations had harmed Hungary and the US’s interests by “a hostile approach to Hungary”, the first Trump administration had fostered excellent ties with the country thanks to shared views on governance, immigration and defence priorities, Cornstein said, pointing as an example to the defence cooperation agreement signed by the two counries.

He said he expected cooperation to “flourish” during Trump’s second term, and lamented the “lost opportunities of cooperation” under Biden’s tenure.

Balázs Hankó, Minister of Culture and Innovation, attended a commemoration of the Madefalva Massacre in Siculeni (Madefalva), Romania, on Tuesday, in which hundreds of Szekler Hungarians were slain by Austrian troops in 1764.

On January 7, 1764, the troops of Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, retaliated for a protest by some 2,500 Szeklers who refused to serve in the Austrian army under command in Germany.

“The martyrs of Madefalva serve as a reminder that we should always have the courage to stand up for our rights and our truth,” Minister Hankó said in his speech at the Siculicidium memorial.

“Hungarians today have to fight to ensure that no decisions about them are made without them and to ensure that everyone belonging to the Hungarian nation feels that they belong somewhere and that their way of life, language, faith and rights are secure,” he added.

Barna Tanczos, Romania’s finance minister, said the Szekler people could be counted on today just as they could be in the past.