“Never before has so much construction taken place simultaneously between Hungary and Slovakia than currently”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared in the Eastern Slovakian village of Kechnec (Kenyhec) on Friday at a joint press conference with Slovakian Economy Minister Peter Žiga following the signing of a memorandum of understanding on energy cooperation concerning the shipment of natural gas.

Following the signing of the document, Hungary’s chief diplomat pointed out: “The significant expansion of the capacity of the Hungarian-Slovakian gas interconnector, and the fact that we are linking the two countries’ high voltage electricity networks at two points, are creating an integrated energy system connection that is establishing security in case there is trouble with the energy supply anywhere around the world”.

“We would like to increase the capacity of the Hungarian-Slovakian natural gas interconnector to 5.3 billion cubic metres in both directions, and the capacity contracting procedure will be launched this summer”, Mr. Szijjártó told reporters, adding that the transport of natural gas via the Hungarian-Slovakian interconnector has already begun, and last week 9-10 billion cubic metres of natural gas were already transported between the two countries. “In view of the fact that large quantities of natural gas will be arriving in Hungary from a southern direction via the Turkish Stream gas pipeline beginning in 2021, and we plan to transport the unused quantities forward in the direction of Slovakia, this will afford both countries a previously non-existent transport position”, the Minister pointed out.

Mr. Szijjártó also spoke about the infrastructure development programmes between the two countries, mentioning that the linking of Hungary’s M1 motorway and the relative Slovakian dual carriageway at Rajka will occur in March, creating a direct motorway link between the two capitals, and the motorway connecting the borders of the two countries at Miskolc will also be completed by 2022.

At the press conference, Slovakian Minister of Economy Peter Žiga also praised the extremely good relations between the two countries, which in addition to inter-governmental relations is also proven the ongoing cooperation between the two countries’ energy companies. With relation to this, Mr. Žiga stressed the importance of energy cooperation between the countries of Central Europe. Concerning the cooperation agreement concluded on Friday, he said: “It is the successful culmination of many years of effort, and the third in a series of energy links that have been successfully realised between the two countries in recent years”.

(MTI)