“In accordance with the agreement between the two countries’ prime ministers, Hungary-Laos cooperation is being raised to a strategic level”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Monday in Budapest following a meeting with his Laotian counterpart.

“Laos is one of Hungary’s traditional partners in one of the world’s most rapidly developing regions, which is also favourable because Laos produced a high level of economic growth in the 2000s, and accordingly Hungary can also profit from this cooperation economically”, the Minister highlighted.

“What is happening in Laos is proof of the success of Hungarian foreign policy and foreign trade strategy, meaning that it is indeed also possible to facilitate the success of Hungarian enterprises in faraway regions, it simply requires the use of a suitable set of economic and diplomatic instruments”, he emphasised.

“Bilateral relations can boast a long history and human relations also represent a strong foundation in view of the fact that in recent decades hundreds of young people from Laos have studied in Hungary, and today many of them are working in high positions within the country’s state administration”, he explained.

The Foreign Minister said the expansion of Hungarian enterprises on foreign markets is being facilitated by tied aid programmes. “Two important programmes have already been realised with Laos: an agricultural programme and a food safety programme at a total value of 38.6 million dollars. Based on this success, last year we agreed to launch a third, 160-milion-dollar tied aid programme”, he explained.

“Hungarian companies are currently realising investment projects within three sectors of industry in the Asian country: a new national food safety chain is being established, the capital’s full wastewater network is being modernised, and an electronic ID system is being developed and realised. The programme is helping these investment projects”, he stated.

“Negotiations have also begun on a fourth programme, which will concentrate on healthcare investment projects”, he noted.

“Thanks to these programmes, trade flow has increased by 500 percent over the past two years”, Mr. Szijjártó said.

The Minister also spoke about the fact that because of the continuously improving economic relations and the increasing number of people travelling to Laos, and also in the interests of keeping together the community of Laotians who studied in Hungary, it has been decided to open a consular representation in the capital, Vientiane, where in addition to providing consular protection for Hungarian citizens, tasks will include the building of economic and diplomatic relations.

He also announced that the number of Laotian students receiving scholarships to study in Hungary will be increased to one hundred this year, in addition to which the diplomatic exchange programme will also continue.

Laotian Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith explained: “Bilateral relations do indeed have a long history, and stable cooperation has developed between the two countries in recent decades”. “Relations are now being elevated to a higher level through this strategic partnership, which strongly mirrors our mutual respect”, he said.

The Laotian Minister expressed his thanks to Hungary for enabling Laotian students to study here, noting that he accompanied the country’s Prime Minister to Budapest, and the delegation includes several people who studied in Hungary.

With relation to the tied aid programmes, he said that the projects had done much to facilitate the country’s development.

In reply to a question, Mr. Szijjártó said that one of the important elements of Hungary foreign trade strategy is the Eastern Opening policy, the goal of which “is to facilitate the success of as many Hungarian enterprises as possible on the most dynamically growing markets, and everyone can see that the Southeast Asian economies are growing extremely rapidly and dynamically”. “Hungary’s economy is particularly open and is built on exports, and accordingly it would be irrational to neglect the growth opportunities presented by the markets of the countries of Southeast Asia”, he stated.

The two ministers concluded an agreement on visa-free travel for citizens with diplomatic and official passports, as well as an agreement on an education cooperation programme for the period 2020-2022.

In reply to a question, Mr. Szijjártó also spoke about the fact that the European Union’s foreign ministers will be meeting next week, and he is officially proposing that “the presentation of the secret plan that the Brussels bureaucracy is drawing up”, and which is aimed at making the Global Compact for Migration that was adopted by the UN, but rejected by Hungary, mandatory for all European countries, be included as an extraordinary agenda item. “When this Compact was being prepared by the UN, the EU first continuously threatened us with launching infringement proceeding if Hungary goes against the joint standpoint”, he stated.

Mr. Szijjártó said that in his opinion once this was unsuccessful, they claimed that “it isn’t worth going against the Compact, because it will not be legally binding anyway”. Since it transpired that they had not succeeded in adopting the Compact “triumphantly”, they have been trying to “push it through in parts” on the sidelines of international forums, he said.

According to the Hungarian Foreign Minister, the document leaked yesterday clearly indicates that there are plans in preparation to legally force the UN Compact on member states, which is “an attack against sovereignty”. What must be achieved is for the European Commission to uncover all of its plans, and then “quickly forget about them”, Mr. Szijjártó said.

(MTI)