Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó held negotiations with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Ankara about possible cooperation in the energy and economic sector and about joint efforts to manage geopolitical and global challenges.

Talking about the discussions held with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz Péter Szíjjértó said that Turkey will play a strategic role in Europe’s and in Central Europe’s energy supply, as Russia has discarded plans regarding the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline. Moscow currently negotiates with Ankara about possible solutions of transporting gas intended for the South Stream to Turkey instead.

The Hungarian minister emphasised that “our task now is to prepare investments that allow channelling gas transported to Turkey to Central Europe”. He added that Russia consults with Turkey on transporting an annual supply of 63 billion cubic metres of gas. Furthermore, there are on-going negotiations about building a regional gas distributor near the Greek-Turkish border.

He asserted that Turkey shows willingness to transport the gas coming from Russia to Central Europe. The Turkish delegation assured him that supplying energy to Hungary is an important aspect for them. The politicians have agreed to launch direct Turkish-Hungarian negotiations on transporting gas to Central Europe as soon as a final decision has been made concerning the Turkish-Russian gas transport and the regional centre.

The task for Hungary now is to consult with Greece, Macedonia and Serbia about possible gas transportation routes. "We will consult with the European Commission about possibilities of receiving financial support from the European Union for this purpose”, Péter Szijjártó said.

The fact that Turkey is constructing and developing new nuclear power plants in four phases opens further possibilities of future cooperation: thousands of professionals need to be trained. Negotiations on the training of some of these professionals in Hungary have been launched.

The Hungarian Minister pointed out the Hungarian-Turkish trade turnover has increased by 8 per-cent last year, and is expected to exceed USD 206 million.

To support further development, Eximbank will open a new branch in Istanbul in February. A credit facility of USD 170 million will be made available to support the activities of Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises active in the Turkish market.

Péter Szijjártó also agreed with his partners on strengthening the cooperation in the field of defence and security policy between the two countries, in order to handle global challenges.

He also announced that the Hungarian and Turkish Ministries of Foreign Affairs have reached an agreement on political cooperation between the two countries. A similar agreement was last signed in 1993.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will pay a visit to Budapest at the end of February. In the framework of this visit the next meeting of the high-level strategic council of the two countries will be organised.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)