Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó has been awarded an honorary doctorate by KAZGUU University in Kazakhstan; the title was presented on Wednesday in Astana by the University’s Rector, Talgat Narikbayev, the Ministry of foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI.

According to the statement, the doctorate is awarded to people who perform outstandingly within their field and who facilitate the development of international relations with KAZGUU University.

The institution has several links with Hungary, maintaining partner relations with the Corvinus University of Budapest, in addition to which 10 percent of its students taking part in various mobility programmes are attending university in Hungary.

Cooperation between Hungary and Kazakhstan is becoming closer year-by-year, primarily within the fields of the economy, water management and education.

On 28 February, Mr. Szijjártó announced that in future the current quota of Kazakh students attending Hungarian universities within the framework of the Government’s Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship programme, will be increasing from 200 to 250.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister is in Astana attending a UN Water Convention meeting, and held talks with Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov and Minister for National Economy Timor Suleimenov, in addition to which he also met with the regional directors of Hungarian oil company MOL, which is in the process of implementing further investment projects in Kazakhstan.

On the sidelines of the UN meeting, Mr. Szijjártó concluded a bilateral water cooperation agreement with Uzbekistani Minister of Water Resources Shavkat Hamraev.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)