“Hungarian-Russian economic cooperation has exited the negative spiral and has begun moving in a positive direction for the first time since the introduction of economic sanctions against Russia by the European Union”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told Hungarian news agency MTI in Thursday following a meting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Hamburg.

In his telephone statement concerning his bilateral talks on the sidelines of the session of the highest-level governing body of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Ministerial Council, Mr. Szijjártó highlighted the fact that although Hungarian-Russian economic and trade cooperation may have suffered as a result of EU sanctions, but thanks to the previously concluded agreements it is again contributing to the performance of the Hungarian economy.

This is also indicated by the fact that the Russian owner of Hungarian steel manufacturer Dunaferr has made further investments and Hungarian and Russian companies have submitted a joint Egyptian tender for the procurement of 700 railway carriages, in addition to which the European obstacles to one of the largest undertakings in the history of the Hungarian economy, the expansion of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant, “are gradually melting away”, the Foreign Minister told the press.

As a result, the policies aimed at balancing the negative effects of the EU sanctions based on inter-business cooperation, mutual investment in each other’s markets and joint activities on third markets, “are entering the results phase”, the Minister said, stressing the fact that he and the Russian Foreign Minister had further reinforced this policy.

Mr. Szijjártó added that political dialogue continued to occur in a transparent manner and all Hungarian-Russian high-level negotiations are immediately made public.

An official meeting between the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Hungary and Russia is organised every year; last year it was held in Moscow, this year’s meeting was in Budapest and the next meeting will be held in Moscow on 23 January at the invitation of Mr. Lavrov, he informed the press. Negotiations are also held on the sidelines of multilateral meetings and the OSCE summit in Hamburg provided the fourth opportunity for negotiations this year. This is also an indication of the fact that the two countries envisage an important role for “pragmatic and rational” cooperation between the two countries, Mr. Szijjártó said.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade held several other bilateral talks on the sidelines of the session of the OSCE Ministerial Council. Mr. Szijjártó concluded several economic agreements with Mongolian Foreign Minister Miyeegombyn Enkhbold, including most importantly the fact that there are now no further bureaucratic obstacles to the planned construction of a Mongolian vaccine plant to be realised with the help of a 25 million U.S. Dollar aid credit from the Hungarian Government.

With relation to his meeting with Kazakh Minister of Foreign Affairs Erlan Idrissov, Mr. Szijjártó said that another major opportunity for agricultural technology cooperation had also been opened up thanks to the agreement signed by the parties on the operation of a bilateral agriculture investment fund system. Concerning his negotiations with Belarussian Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey, Mr. Szijjártó highlighted the signing of an agreement designed to promote an increase in the exports of Hungarian pharmaceutical industry products to Belarus. On Thursday in Hamburg, the Hungarian Foreign Minister also held bilateral talks with his counterparts from Kirgizstan, Uzbekistan, Montenegro and Andorra.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)