“The strengthening of the EU requires tighter cooperation with the Eurasian Economic Union”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI from Minsk on Tuesday. Belarus is the current president of the Eurasian Economic Union.

“We regard the EU’s Eastern Partnership policy as extremely important, and an important element of this policy is Belarus. We regard the building of this partnership as important, and for this reason we are proposing the further easing of EU sanctions against Minsk”, the Minister told the press. Mr. Szijjártó said the raw materials found within the Eurasian Economic Union could play an important role in the development of the European economy, in addition to which the most important natural gas transit zones also pass through Belarus. “Belarus plays an important role from the aspect of future cooperation between the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union, and accordingly we are also building our relations, and thereby facilitating the enforcement of a very important European interest”, he stated.

Mr. Szijjártó underlined that Hungary’s recent economic success has been achieved thanks to the fact that it recognised in time that it must implement a balanced foreign economic strategy; in addition to Western economic relations, it must also pay attention to Eastern economic relations. “Today, we have reached a stage where the speed of global economic transformations is being dictated at least as much from the East as from the West”, declared the Minister, according to whom many Western European countries have also assessed this, and it is also evident that there is increasing Western European interest in the economy of Belarus.

“In the recent period, we Hungarians have also been able to build a growing and continuously improving economic cooperation with Belarus”, Mr. Szijjártó highlighted. He explained that a bilateral investment protection agreement between the countries has come into force, thanks to which Hungarian enterprises are realising and planning more and more investment projects on the Belarusian market. “Our agricultural cooperation is practically soaring”, Mr. Szijjártó declared, pointing out that Hungarian producers have already sold over 750 thousand chickens on the Belarusian market, and some 5 million euros in market opportunities will be opening up to them over the upcoming years. “Hungarian pharmaceutical company Richter is continuously increasing its share of the domestic market, in addition to which our machine industry and transport cooperation is also developing at such a rate that not only are Hungarian enterprises showing interest in the Belarusian market, but increasingly strong Belarusian companies are also looking from European production opportunities and are counting on Hungarian investors”, the Minister pointed out.

Mr. Szijjártó specifically highlighted the fact that the double-decker trains that Stadler has manufactured in Hungarian-Belarusian cooperation will be placed into commission in the upcoming months. “In addition, one of the world’s largest agricultural machinery manufacturers is planning to establish a tractor plant in Hungary, and Belarusian companies that manufacture electric buses are also calculating with Hungary as a production headquarters”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.

Mr. Szijjártó also mentioned that transport links between the two countries are also expanding continuously. The current three direct air passenger services-a-week will soon be increasing to seven in view of the fact that the Belarusian airline will be operating five services-a-week and Wizzair will be operating two services-a-week between the two countries, he explained.

During his visit to Minsk, Mr. Szijjártó held talks with Minister of Sport and Tourism Sergey Kavalchuk, Minister of Agriculture Anatoly Khotko, Minister of Economy Aleksandr Charvyakov and Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei.

(MTI)