“In the new world order that has developed as a result of the extremely deep-rooted and rapid changes that are occurring throughout the world, Europe cannot guarantee its competitiveness and security without effectively cooperating with Asia”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a telephone statement to Hungarian news agency MTI from the capital of Myanmar on Monday.
The Minister is attending the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting at the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Naypyidaw. The ASEM incudes 30 European countries, 21 Asian countries and the European Union, and is aimed at facilitating relations between the states of the two continents. As one of the conference’s leading speakers, Mr. Szijjártó presented the Hungarian standpoint.
He explained that the reason Europe is incapable of maintaining competitiveness is that the world’s most rapidly developing region is currently in Asia. Europe is also incapable of guaranteeing its security without effective cooperation with Asia in view of the fact that in several regions of this continent there are processes happening that regularly give rise to huge waves of migration, which will eventually also reach Europe.
“Close cooperation is required to enable both competitiveness and security to increase. This could also mean major economic advantages for Europe, because these days capital not only flows towards the East, but also from East to West, and accordingly many large Far Eastern companies are expanding their European market presence. These companies are front-runners in the modernisation of digital technology, and accordingly it is in the fundamental interests of European economies and enterprises to cooperate with them”, he added.
“The other reason is cooperation, which facilitates the realisation of economic development programmes in other regions of Asia, in places where migration processes begin, and where economic cooperation can put an end to the circumstances that cause migration. The migration pressure on Europe can be eliminated through major economic cooperation”, the Minister declared.
Mr. Szijjártó stressed that Hungary is one of Europe’s frontrunners in economic cooperation with Asia, and also with relation to developing cooperation between people. “Hungarian exports to Asian ASEM member states increased by twenty percent during the first eight months of this year, exceeding 4.5 billion euros. In the interests of enabling the successful presence of Hungarian enterprises on these markets, Eximbank has opened a 12 billion euro credit line to facilitate business relations between Hungarian enterprises and those of various Asian countries. Furthermore, Hungary is providing a total of 1995 scholarship places for Asian students to attend Hungarian universities. Accordingly, Hungary is one of the front-runners in assuring that the vital cooperation between Europe and Asia is tightened further”, he explained.
On the sidelines of the ASEM meeting, Mr. Szijjártó held bilateral talks with, amongst others, his counterparts from Japan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. At these meetings, the Minister concluded agreements on scholarship places for Asian students to study in Hungary, the establishment of safe food chains, and the development of national electronic ID systems.
Agreements were also concluded on the fact that Hungary will be opening a diplomatic representation in Cambodia, and launching a loan programme for tourism, food industry and water management projects. The Japanese Foreign Minister assured Mr. Szijjártó that Tokyo continues to support the activities of the Visegrád Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, the V4) in the interests of the integration of the Western Balkans. “Japan has already provided major financial support towards this task”, the Hungarian Foreign Minister added.
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)
