Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó will be reopening the Hungarian Embassy in Angola and Wednesday.
In a telephone statement to Hungarian news agency MTI, the Minister said Hungary will be placing greater emphasis on cooperation with Angola in the upcoming period for both economic and security reasons.
Mr. Szijjártó noted that Hungary does not agree with the UN approach according to which migration is a good thing and is unstoppable, explaining that “we view migration as an extremely serious security risk”, as already proven by the terrorist attacks in Europe. It is also proven by the fact that “when millions of people migrate all over Africa” it leads to the destabilisation of several countries on the continent, which represents a major security risk for Europe, he continued.
“Migration can be stopped”, as also proven by Angola, which is making a huge effort to protect its borders from the significant migration pressure being placed on it from neighbouring countries, Mr. Szijjártó stressed, explaining that “Europe should value those African countries that are neither sources of migration nor serve as transit routes for migration”.
The Minister said that in his view countries that make a major effort to preserve their economic and security stability and to protect their borders should be acknowledged. “Angola is one such country, and has proven that illegal immigration can indeed be stopped”, he declared.
Hungary is renewing its security cooperation with Angola. Several senior and junior officers from the Angolan military used to take part in various training programmes in Hungary, and we are now recommencing this cooperation, the Foreign Minister announced.
Hungary will also be increasing the number of Angolan students being afforded scholarship places to study at Hungarian universities from 20 to 50, he noted.
Mr. Szijjártó also spoke about the fact that bilateral trade between the two countries increased by over 2000 percent during single year in 2017 to exceed 80 million dollars. There are major opportunities for cooperation in two areas: energy supply and water management, he indicated.
Angola would like 50 percent of its population to have access to electricity by 2020, and negotiations on the fact that it will be purchasing the turbines and generators manufactured in Hungary by two multinational companies to help achieve this goal are in an advanced stage. Hungary’s Eximbank has opened a 172 million dollar credit line to facilitate the deal, he explained.
Download
In addition, only 49 percent of Angola’s population has access to suitable drinking water services, and for this reason it would now like to entrust the water supply of the country’s 43 district capitals to Hungarian enterprises. Eximbank is also prepared to provide a suitable credit line to enable the realisation of this project, Mr. Szijjártó added.
Angola has grown to become the African continent’s number one oil producer and third largest diamond producer, he added.
The parties signed an agricultural cooperation agreement, initialled an agreement on visa-free travel for diplomats and government officials, and concluded agreements between the two countries’ foreign affairs institutes and between the Eötvös Lóránd University and Angola’s Agostinho Neto University, the Minister also announced.
In Luanda, Mr. Szijjártó met with Angola’s Vice President and Speaker of Parliament, in addition to which he will also be holding talks with the country’s Foreign Minister, Minister of Energy and Water and Minister for Education, and with the Chairman of Angolan Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.
(MTI)
