“Slovakia is one of Hungary’s most important foreign trade partners; our longest stretch of common border is with them, and it is with them that we are currently working on the largest number of infrastructure links”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared on Saturday on Facebook following talks with Slovakian Minister of Economy Richard Sulík.

Mr. Szijjártó wrote that construction of the new Danube bridge at Komárom is progressing well, the works will soon be jointly inspected; “everyone will arrive from their own side and leave in the same direction, so we won’t be breaking the rules”.

“Another major, joint project is increasing the capacity of the interconnector linking the two countries’ natural gas pipeline systems. This is currently suitable for transporting 1.75 billion cubic metres of natural gas each year from the direction of Hungary. However, in view of the fact that from next year Hungary will also be able to acquire large quantities of natural gas from the south, its transit role will be increasing”, he wrote. “Accordingly, there may be a need for a 5.2 billion cubic metre annual transport capacity in the direction of Slovakia. The required preparation work is already underway, and the capacity contracting procedure will be duly published in July”, he noted. “Parallel to this, the current transport capacity of an annual 4.4 billion cubic metres from the direction of Slovakia is also being increased, by 880 million cubic metres in the first phase”, he added.

“More and more things are therefore linking us to our Slovakian neighbours, both literally and in a figurative sense”, Mr. Szijjártó stated.

(MTI)