“Hungary is gaining strength thanks to the Hungarian seaport in Trieste, because it is in the fundamental interests of the economy and enterprises for there to be a Hungarian maritime exit”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared in an interview for Hungarian news portal origo.hu.

In the article published on Friday, Mr. Szijjártó stressed that the Hungarian port will mean dependability and calculability for Hungarian enterprises, which in turn will guarantee business profit for Hungarian companies.

According to the Hungarian Foreign Minister, the return on the investment is already “obvious” based on the interest surrounding the port in view of the fact that Hungarian and international companies will be paying significant sums for logistics and warehousing services, which is clearly a good thing for the Hungarian national economy.

Mr. Szijjártó said that in his opinion Trieste was definitely the best solution since it is one of the closest maritime ports to Hungary, it can be reached by road and rail within 24 hours, and the capacity of the port is sufficient to satisfy the needs of Hungarian exporters.

“The port in Trieste can be used by the larger than medium-sized ships that are important to Hungarian enterprises. The largest ships dock in Rotterdam or Piraeus according to practice, where goods are transferred to smaller vessels and sent on to Trieste, and the process works in a similar manner in reverse”, the Minister said.

He highlighted the fact that port traffic in Trieste has grown dynamically in recent years, and it has the best land transport infrastructure and development potential from among the ports in Hungary’s vicinity.

“In recent years, the flow of goods between Trieste and Hungary has increased by 300 percent, at least one container train currently travels between Trieste and Hungary every single day, and once the port is placed into commission, we are expecting this quantity to double”, the Minister said.

Mr. Szijjártó mentioned that the Hungarian Government had also entered into negotiations with the Slovenians with relation to the port of Koper, but it soon transpired that such cooperation would be impossible in views of the fact that certain members of the multi-party minority government did not want such an agreement.

“With respect to the port in Trieste, we have already concluded the purchase agreement, which will come into force in the autumn, at which time we will also be signing another agreement concerning how the Hungarian area is linked to the development projects began at the port in 2016. Later, a Hungarian company will also be established to supervise the Hungarian state’s 100-million-euro development project”, the Minister stated, adding that the port must be completed within a period of three years.

He said Hungary will also be consulting with the other three countries of the Visegrád Group (V4) with relation to their possible involvement in the plans.

According to Mr. Szijjártó, the establishment of the port will further reinforce Hungarian-Italian relations.

During the interview, the Minister was also asked with relation to the fact that the UN Global Compact for Migration is once again on the table. With relation to this, Mr. Szijjártó said it is evident that the pro-immigration forces in the UN and Brussels are supporting each other and are continuing to do everything possible in the interest of forcing through their pro-immigration proposals.

“However, the Hungarian Government is fighting with all possible instruments against plans aimed at legalising illegal immigration, and it is not alone, but we must remain vigilant in view of the fact that we have had to speak out on several occasions with relation to Brussels documents that cite the UN Global Compact for Migration”, the Minister said.

(MTI/Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)