The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade organised a 5-day series of programmes between April 19-23 under the name Southward Opening Diplomat Days for Latin American foreign ministry experts responsible for Europe and Hungary.

The goal of the programme, which was held under the chief patronship of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Dr. László Szabó, was to increase existing knowledge about Hungary for decision makers and decision development experts from the Latin American region, to initiate dialogue on our foreign policy priorities and to directly share and debate our standpoints on international issues in which we have a mutual interest.

The representatives of 11 Latin American countries had a busy program during their 5-day visit: they met with the majority of high-level leaders from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and with related staff from the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Human Capacities. Furthermore, they gained knowledge with respect to the economic development opportunities afforded by some of the Foreign Ministry’s background institutions (Hungarian National Trading House Cls., the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency and EXIM Bank) and Hungarian research and development and innovation capabilities via a visit to Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for Computer Science and Control (MTA-SZTAKI), in addition to which they engaged in a constructive debate on the priority areas of Hungarian foreign policy during the course of a roundtable discussion with the heads of related departments from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Our guests from Latin America also received an insight into Hungarian cultural, gastronomy and tourism opportunities.

The Southward Opening policy has given increased impetus to our relations with Latin America. We have re-opened our embassies in Santiago de Chile and Quito, and our Consulate General in Sao Paolo. We have sent a foreign trade attaché to every one of our foreign representations and the Hungarian National Trading House has opened a representative office in the region. Our euro exports to the region have increased by 18% since 2014 and Latin America’s share of total Hungarian exports has increased by 10%. We have also increased professional dialogue in the interests of tightening relations: in addition to more frequent high-level meetings the 2nd Hungary-Latin America Forum was held in Budapest last autumn. The recently ended Southward Opening Diplomat Days seminar was also linked to this strategy.

Heads of department and deputy heads of department from the foreign ministries of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, El Salvador, Uruguay and Venezuela took part in the programme.

(MTI)