“Although Hungary and Portugal are different in many respects, the realisation of an effective European Union Africa Strategy is in the interests of both countries”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI on Thursday.

Reporting on his visit to Lisbon, the Minister explained: “Hungary and Portugal are two countries with totally different geographical locations and a totally different history, as a result of which they naturally also view many international issues differently”. “This, however, does not rule out the fact that they may cooperate with relation to international issues that are important, or even strategically important, to Hungary”, he pointed out. “We also have differing viewpoints with relation to many things concerning the issue of migration, but there is one point that, if realised, would also be of huge assistance to Hungary”. “Portugal would like the European Union to draw up a truly existing and effective Africa Strategy, and this is something Hungary also has an interest in, because one instrument against the migration pressure pushing on Europe is border protection, and the other is the prevention of outflow from Africa”, he said, explaining that this can be prevented if economic and social development programs are realised in Africa that make it clear: the future of the African people is in Africa, and as a result they will not set out en masse towards Europe.

“Hungary is prepared to play an active part in this process, and is already providing over a thousand scholarship places for African students to attend Hungarian universities and running programs focussing on water management in ten African countries, in addition to which over 90 million dollars in tied aid development programmes are ongoing on the continent, which are being financed by the Hungarian government”, Mr. Szijjártó emphasised. “So, if the EU supports Portugal and is capable of establishing a truly effective Africa Strategy, then it will be possible to prevent the large-scale outflow of people from there towards Europe”, he explained.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister also spoke about the fact that the economy is also an important area of bilateral relations. “Richter has a significant share of the Portuguese pharmaceutical market, Hell’s energy drink products are marketed in thousands of stores here, and a 7-billion-forint (EUR 20 million) joint Hungarian-Portuguese fund has been established to support Hungarian and Portuguese small and medium-sized enterprises that are successful within the field of digital transition”, he stated. “Cooperation is now being expanded with another high-tech sector of industry, the space industry. Portugal is working on establishing a major satellite development and launching capacity, and Hungary is also working on its own satellite program: two of its small satellites are already in orbit, the deployment of the third is about to take place, and from 2024 it will have the right to put a large satellite into orbit around the Earth”, he said. “This means that cooperation with Portugal is also extremely important with relation to the future of the Hungarian space industry, and we have now duly concluded a cooperation agreement”, the Minister announced.

(MTI/Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)