Deputy State Secretary for Opening to the South Szilveszter Bus held talks with his Saudi counterpart, Undersecretary for Bilateral Relations Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim al Jandan from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in his office in Budapest on 4 November 2016.

During the meeting, the parties reviewed the current state and perspectives of bilateral relations and designated the key sectors of cooperation to be water management, agriculture, nuclear energetics and higher education. Dr. Jandan indicated that the Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 programme, which aims to diversify the country’s economy, provides many opportunities for Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises to become involved.

Mr. Bus indicated that Hungary is following the processes towards renewal that are underway within the Kingdom and feels that they are also of heightened interest with regard to opportunities to expand our bilateral relations. He said it was important to continue to assist businesses from the two countries to forge new ties and stressed that Hungary offers one of the best-performing and most favourable investment environments in Europe for business partners from Saudi Arabia. Mr. Bus called on Saudi Arabia to pay even more attention to Europe’s currently most energetic region, including Hungary, and to be present at the next Hungarian-Arabian Business Forum in a manner that befits its weight.

During their negotiations, the parties discussed the situation of the Gulf region’s crisis zones and agreed that much greater effort is required on the part of the international community, the determining powers and the United Nations to settle the situation in crisis zones. With reference to this, Mr. Bus stressed that we regard Saudi Arabia as a central power within the region, whose responsible and level-headed participation is vital to finding solutions to the region’s most important problems.

He also pointed out that balanced relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, who is also one of our key partners, is an indispensable requirement for regional stability.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)