Minister Martonyi in NY: Central Asia is important to Hungary

Foreign Minister János Martonyi held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Afghanistan, Iraq and Kazakhstan on the margins of the plenary session of the UN General Assembly on Thursday in New York City.

János Martonyi assured Afghan Foreign Minister Dr. Zelmai Rasool that Hungary would provide assistance to Afghanistan even after 2014. „It is very important for us that we preserve what the international community has achieved in Afghanistan after all the sacrifice and wars, and that we should not give another chance to terrorism and drug trafficking”, the Hungarian Foreign Minister said.

As regards his talks with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, János Martonyi declared that the Hungarian oil company MOL was about make an investment in the northern part of Iraq, in the Kurdish region. „As a consequence of this we are going to set up a consular office in Erbil, and the task of this office will be to promote the activities of MOL and to develop contacts locally” – he added.

Following his talks with Kazakh Foreign Minister Erlan Idrisov, János Martonyi stated that bilateral relations between Hungary and Kazakhstan were developing in a promising manner. Mr. Idrisov will be visiting Hungary in two months’ time, and in the first half of 2014 President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev will pay an official visit to Hungary. „Kazakhstan is an important regional power, and a very important partner for the EU. Several European countries have strategic partnership agreements with Kazakhstan, and I have also initiated such an agreement between our countries” – János Martonyi declared.

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Photo: sikerado.hu