The issue of integrating a growing Muslim population is a challenge facing both Europe and Southeast Asia, said Bertalan Havasi, Orban’s spokesman.
“The two leaders highlighted that one of the greatest challenges at present for both countries and their respective regions — South East Asia and Europe — is migration,” read a statement released by the Hungarian government after the summit.
“They noted that both regions have seen the emergence of the issue of coexistence with continuously growing Muslim populations.”
Orban said Hungary supported trade cooperation between the European Union and Myanmar but rejected the approach of Brussels and other western bureaucrats who try to mix unrelated issues such as economic cooperation with domestic affairs.
He said emphasis was placed on educational and cultural ties but there were untapped opportunities in economic cooperation. Foreign trade ministers of the two countries will therefore intensify their cooperation, he added.
Orban added that Hungarians respected Aung San Suu Kyi for her endeavours for her country’s freedom and democratic transformation.
Hungary’s foreign minister, said that Hungary greatly appreciated leaders who prioritised the interests of their nation and made sacrifices for it.
“Aung San Suu Kyi is always received with great respect and appreciation when she visits Hungary because she has done so much for the freedom of her nation,” Szijjarto told a press conference. She is the leader of the National League for Democracy in her country and the first and incumbent State Counsellor, a position akin to a prime minister.
Prior to Hungary, Nobel Peace Prize winner San Suu Kyi visted the Czech Republic where she met with Prime Minister Andrej Babis to strengthen economic ties in the region.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, accused Aung San Suu Kyi of “glad-handing and making friends with Europe’s most xenophobic, anti-democratic leader” Orban.
Orban has called migrants from the Middle East and central Asia, “Muslim invaders” and has taken effective measures to limit the number of immigrants entering Hungary, including constructing a fence along the border with Serbia.
The Asian leader was once lauded internationally by globalists for her efforts to bring “democracy” to Myanmar. But over the past two years, according to her critics, Suu Kyi has not spoken out about the alleged discrimination facing a Muslim minority in the country, known as the Rohingya.
Leftist rag Vox, said that Suu Kyi’s “fall from grace isn’t slowing down — it’s accelerating”. In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but since becoming the leader of Myanmar, she is one of the most visible political activists for anti-Islamists.
Some Rohingya Muslims were swept up in the violence that erupted across the country in 2017. Aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières estimated that at least 6 700 Rohingya were killed, but the survey did not identify any individuals allegedly killed. A further 700 000 are said to have been driven from their homes.
Despite this alleged “genocide” over 79 percent of Rohingya were willing to return to Myanmar as soon as possible, according to research conducted by Mohsin Habib of Australia’s Swinburne University.
A 1982 law restricts citizenship for the Rohingya and other minorities not considered members of one of Myanmar’s “national races”. They excluded from Myanmar’s last nationwide census in 2014, and many have had their identity documents nullified.
Orban too, has had to face harsh criticism for his anti-immigration stance. The Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights accused Orban’s government of using anti-migrant rhetoric that fuels “xenophobic attitudes, fear and hatred” in a recent report.
Aung San Suu Kyi has increasingly spoken out against the imposition of western ideas and principles in Myanmar, a view which Orban shares. In his statement released after their meeting, he emphasised his rejection of the “export of democracy” from other western countries.
She reacted to criticism after the imprisonment of two Reuters journalists in her country by stating: “I don’t think anyone has bothered to read” the judgement as it had “nothing to do with freedom of expression at all”, but the Official Secrets Act.
She also challenged critics to “point out where there has been a miscarriage of justice”, and told the two Reuters journalists that they could appeal their case to a higher court after they tried to frame her as an accomplice to the genocide of Muslims.