“The Hungarian and Belarusian parties will be signing four cooperation agreements during Friday’s visit to Minsk by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, including an agreement on nuclear cooperation,”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a statement to Hungarian public media.

During the course of the day, the parties will first conclude an agreement on cooperation between the two countries’ diplomatic academies, which according to the Minister will enable young diplomats in training to acquire a broader perspective and get to know a different kind of approach during the course of their studies. An agreement will also be concluded between the two countries’ export agencies, which will broaden trade opportunities between Hungary and Belarus. According to Mr. Szijjártó, this will nicely supplement the 40-million-euro credit line to be opened by Hungary’s EximBank.
A nucleal cooperation agreement between the two countries will also be signed during the prime ministerial visit. With relation to this, Mr. Szijjártó drew attention to the fact that both countries are affording nuclear energy a prominent place within their electricity supply. “A two-reactor nuclear power plant is currently under construction in Belarus, using exactly the same technology as the blocks being constructed at Paks 2, except that the Belarusians are at a more advanced stage of construction, having begun their project much earlier, and the newly constructed nuclear power plant is expected to begin generating electricity from September of this year”, he explained.

“It will be a huge advantage for the nuclear engineers and technicians who will be working at the Paks 2 power plant if they see another power plant built using the exact same technology in operation, and have the opportunity to share practical experiences there”, he added. “For this reason, today we will be signing an agreement in accordance with which Hungarian nuclear engineers and experts will be able to gain practical experience at the newly operational nuclear power plant in Belarus. In addition, we have established joint enterprises with Hungarian and Belarusian companies that are involved in the nuclear energy sector, in the interest of enabling us to apply the experience accumulated here to the best possible extent during the development of Paks 2”, Mr. Szijjártó added.

While in Minsk, the Hungarian delegation will also be concluding an agreement based on which the modernisation of the Belarusian poultry processing sector will be entrusted to a Hungarian company, Bábolna. We are talking about a three-year, 1.4-billion-forint (EUR 4 million) cooperation program, as a result of which the modernisation of the Belarusian poultry breeding and processing sector will be founded on Hungarian technology”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)