“The EU has lost some of its competitiveness in recent years and this is one of the reasons why the promotion and development of economic cooperation with its neighbours, including Belarus, is important, and this is something Hungary could also profit from”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Thursday in Budapest following a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart.

At the press conference following the meeting, Mr. Szijjártó stressed that Hungary has always been at the forefront of efforts to have the EU lift sanctions against Belarus and welcomes the fact that the vast majority of sanctions have indeed been successfully revoked. Cooperation could lead to mutual benefits because Belarus is, for instance, also playing a constructive role in solving the crisis in Ukraine, he said.

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The Minister emphasised that in the interests of Europe retaining its position in the global competition between regional economic integrations it would be a logical step to maintain the possibility of rational cooperation between the EU and the Eurasian Economic Union, but this is something from which the European Union is becoming increasingly distanced. Belarus could play a bridging role in this issue, because it is Russia’s most important economic partner and is also open to developing relations with the EU, he pointed out.

Mr. Szijjártó also spoke about the fact that Hungary and Belarus would be working together more closely on energy in future, because the latter is an important transit country with regard to Europe’s energy supply. Nuclear industry cooperation could also be launched, he added.

The Minister pointed out that there had been a 20 percent fall in bilateral trade flow last year and in the interests of reversing this trend a foreign trade diplomat had been deployed to Minsk; furthermore the Hungarian Eximbank is opening a 27 million US Dollar credit line to facilitate cooperation between Hungarian and Belarusian enterprises, in addition to which the parties would also be signing an investment protection agreement.

Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei stressed that the sanctions weren’t bringing a solution to the problem any closer; this is something that only open dialogue can achieve.

On the subject of bilateral relations, Mr. Makei said that Hungary and Belarus have many mutual interests, the two countries have many similarities, and this is an incentive for finding common solutions. There are no disagreements between the two countries and they also both represent similar standpoints on international issues, he declared.

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Mr. Makei urged for the better exploitation of economic opportunities, adding that in his opinion there are many good opportunities for cooperation, including within the fields of agriculture, the food industry, the machinery industry and pharmaceuticals production.

Prior to the press conference, the two Ministers signed an inter-ministerial cooperation agreement.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)