Hungary’s Deputy PM endorses deepening Canada’s economic, political ties with EU

Anita Orbán, Hungary's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister, was in Toronto for a conference on efforts to repatriate kidnapped Ukrainian children, detained civilians and POWs from Russia and the occupied territories. Arlyn McAdorey/The Globe and Mail

Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Anita Orbán says making Canada an “associate member” of the European Union would be a great opportunity to increase trade and political co-operation and bolster their already strong ideological ties.

“We need to understand what it means. But for me, how I see it … this could be an umbrella framework bringing the EU and Canada closer together politically, because these two are already pretty close in terms of values, in terms of how they look at free trade, multilateralism, digital, critical raw materials, energy, security,” said Ms. Orbán, who is also the country’s Foreign Affairs Minister, in an interview in Toronto.