“Diplomatic relations between Hungary and japan, which boast a 150-year history, have never been as good as they are today”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a telephone statement to Hungarian news agency MTI from Tokyo on Wednesday.

“Hungary is maintaining the best ever relations with the world’s third largest economy within the fields of the economy and trade, politics and culture, and also education”, the Hungarian Foreign Minister said following a meeting with Japan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi.

“Japanese enterprises are bringing state-of-the-art technology to Hungary, thus facilitating the further growth of the Hungarian economy and its transition into a new dimension”, Mr. Szijjártó highlighted. “There are currently 170 Japanese companies operating in Hungary, employing 33 thousand people”, he pointed out. “Japanese companies are playing a particularly important role within the field of the automotive industry”, he added, highlighting the Hungarian subsidiaries of Suzuki, the world’s third largest automotive industry supplier Denso, and one of the world’s largest tyre manufacturers Bridgestone.

“With their continuous development projects and investment, the Japanese enterprises operating in Hungary are all contributing to enabling the growth of the Hungarian economy to exceed the European Union average by at least 2 percent in the long term”, the Hungarian Foreign Minister underlined.

“The success of education cooperation between the two countries is proven by the fact that there are over 600 Japanese students attending Hungarian universities, including four hundred involved in medical courses”, he pointed out. With relation to cultural cooperation, the Minister mentioned that a Hungarian cultural institute will be opening in Tokyo at the end of this year, which will enable the further exploitation of the resources inherent in Hungarian culture in the interests of further improving relations between the two countries.

“Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will be visiting Tokyo on 5 and 6 December, where he will be holding talks on the further development of political, economic and trade cooperation”, the Foreign Minister announced.

(MTI)