Turkey’s role to increase in energy security, says ministry

Budapest, February 24 (MTI) – Turkey’s role is expected to increase significantly in terms of energy security for central Europe, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday after talks between Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu and Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci.

Now that the South Stream gas pipeline project has been cancelled, Russia will transport gas to Turkey and it is in Hungary’s interest that this gas should arrive in central Europe, too, the statement added.

There are several potential projects to transfer the Russian gas to central Europe through eastern Europe and the western Balkans and Turkey will play a key role in deciding where to transfer Russian gas.

The talks also covered economic and trade cooperation between Hungary and Turkey. Hungarian exports to Turkey increased by 11.7 percent last year and reached 2 billion dollars. Eximbank provided a 170 million dollar credit line to support cooperation between small and medium-sized companies and a Hungarian-Turkish investment fund will start operation in July.

The sides also talked about a water treatment facility to be donated by the Hungarian waterworks to a refugee camp in Turkey, which is catering for 1.6 million refugees.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters