Lazar: Govt focused on building central European alliances

The Hungarian government is focused on building alliances with its central European peers, as evidenced by last week's Visegrad Group summit in Budapest and Prime Minister Viktor Orban's official visit to Vienna earlier this week, the government office chief said on Thursday. Hungary and Serbia's joint cabinet meeting scheduled for next week is also in line with this strategy, Janos Lazar told a regular weekly press briefing. Lazar called Orban's Tuesday meeting with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz successful, saying that the two leaders had discussed all topical issues. The government office chief said Hungary had a fundamental interest in deepening security cooperation with Austria in order to protect the external borders of the Schengen area.