EU-Kazakh Cooperation Council meeting in Luxembourg: Hungary supports closer ties

EU cooperation with Central Asia could reap huge rewards, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said at an EU-Kazakh Cooperation Council meeting in Luxembourg on Monday, adding that Europeans had cottoned on to the region’s significance 10-12 years after the Hungarian government decided to intensify ties with the region.

Chairing the meeting, Szijjártó said that nobody any longer called in question Central Asia’s significance, but 14 years ago the Hungarian government had been slammed for building strong strategic relations with the region.

“I’m glad that … today everybody acknowledges the region’s significance,” he added, noting the new trade routes, energy security, and bulwark against terrorism that it provided.

“I believe that the freshness, the new energies and the new impetus the European Union needs can be won from your region,” Szijjártó said.

He said global energy networks were more and more burdened by the intensive use of heating and cooling systems as well as transport electrification, and nuclear energy was the safest, most sustainable and environmentally friendly way of meeting these needs.

The foreign minister noted that a recent national referendum held in Kazakhstan concerning the peaceful use of nuclear energy had paved the way to the construction of a nuclear power station in the country. “This could open new paths for energy cooperation with the EU as well,” he said.