The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Minister of State for Security Policy and International Cooperation met with several Ministers in Sudan, where he signed agreements on agriculture, healthcare and education. István Mikola highlighted: Hungary highly appreciates Sudan’s stability and the role it has played in slowing the wave of migration from Africa, and hopes this will continue in future.

The Minister of State and his Sudanese negotiating partners agreed that Hungary could play an important role in revitalising the African country, with particular emphasis on the development of knowledge-based sectors of industry via the transfer of Hungarian technology, Mr. Mikola told Hungarian news agency MTI.

He mentioned healthcare as one of the most important areas of cooperation. The Sudanese Health Minister highlighted the fact that the sanctions inflicted on Sudan in recent decades had caused major damage to the country’s healthcare system, but expressed his hope that in the current situation the restoration of the county’s hospitals could begin at a rapid rate, something in which Hungary could also play a significant role. He mentioned the Hungarian diagnostics centre being established in Khartoum as a good example of this. Head of the National Oncological Institute Miklós Kásler, who also visited the Sudanese capital as part of the Hungarian delegation, said: Treatment is impossible without the recognition of illnesses, and accordingly the development of the diagnostics centre is a priority goal for the Hungarian party.

In recent years, Hungary’s trade representation in Sudan has played a major role in promoting new Hungarian technologies within the Sub-Saharan region.

During the negotiations, agriculture was designated as one of the priority areas for future cooperation. “The Sudanese party spoke with praise about Sudan’s experience with relation to the previous successes of Hungarian experts and stressed that this is why Hungary will be given the opportunity to establish model farms on large areas of land using new agricultural technologies and with the help of Hungarian hybrid crops that are suitable for cultivation in a tropical climate”, Mr. Mikola said.

The Minister of State pointed out that the fact that 25 Sudanese students will be able to attend Hungarian universities from next September within the framework of the state-funded Stipendium Hungaricum programme, and the Sudanese Government will be providing 10 Hungarian students with the opportunity to study free of charge in Sudan, could represent a breakthrough in education cooperation.

One of the major achievements of the three-day visit is the new Hungarian-Sudanese aviation treaty, Mr. Mikola added. The agreement concluded between the two countries in the 1960s was outdated, and Sudanese aeroplanes no longer conformed to EU regulations and were unable to enter Hungarian airspace. Thanks to the new agreement, however, the parties hope that the first flight from Khartoum will soon be able to land in Budapest. One of the largest private Sudanese airlines has already announced that it would like to use the Hungarian capital as an air transport hub, from where it would launch further air passenger services to other Western European capitals, the Minister of State told the press.

(MTI)