Minister: cooperation with Turkic Council ‘yielding significant profits’

Cooperation with the member states of the Turkic Council has resulted in mutual help during the coronavirus pandemic, and doubled Hungary’ trade volume with the region compared with 2010, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said in Khiva, Uzbekistan, on Thursday.

Speaking at a meeting of the International Organisation of Turkic Culture (TURKSOY), Szijjarto noted that Hungary’s trade with the member states has reached an annual four billion dollars. Strengthening international relationships hinges on reaching young people, Szijjártó said, noting that

Hungary offers 850 grants for students from Turkic Council member states every year.

This year, some 4,900 students applied, he said.

Meanwhile, the “failure of the international intervention in Afghanistan” has put the region in the limelight and created a “very worrisome” security situation, he said. Fears of another wave of illegal migration are justified, he said. “The Hungarian government sees

statements encouraging Afghans to leave their country extremely irresponsible,”

he said. Hungary will not support decisions likely to destabilise the region, he added.

Szijjártó said Hungary was committed to strengthening ties with TURKSOY. Despite the geographic distance between the countries, Hungary has always nurtured deep ties with the Central Asian region and Turkey, he said, noting the nation’s central Asian origins, and the work of Hungarian turcologist Ármin Vámbéry who spent time in Khiva during his travels in the 19th century. Talks are under way on an exhibition of Vámbéry’s work in the city, he said.