Egypt is ordering trains from Hungary
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Egypt is ordering another 50 railway carriages from Hungary on top of the 1,300 ordered so far, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said on Thursday.
Hungary has so far delivered 724 railway carriages to Egypt as part of “the largest ever order for Hungarian vehicles”, Szijjártó said after the fourth meeting of the Hungarian-Egyptian economic mixed committee in Budapest, according to a ministry statement. A total of 626 more are being assembled in Dunakeszi, north of Budapest, he added. This order has now been expanded by another 50 railway carriages, bringing its value to around EUR 1.1 billion from the previous EUR 1 billion, Szijjártó said.
Reliable international partnerships have become even more important in light of the war in Ukraine, Szijjártó said, adding that relations between Hungary and Egypt were characterised by mutual respect, which had contributed to significant achievements. Bilateral trade in agriculture reached a record USD 30 million last year, up 80 percent from the year before, Szijjártó said.
At a joint press conference with Rania A. Al-Mashat, Egypt’s minister for international cooperation, Szijjártó highlighted energy as the most important area of bilateral cooperation. He said both countries were focused on nuclear energy when it came to energy security and the green transition.
Hungary and Egypt are building new nuclear plant reactors with the same contractor and technology, Szijjártó said, adding that this presented serious opportunities in bilateral technical, scientific and education cooperation.
“We believe that nuclear energy is the energy of the future because it’s cheap, safe and a sustainable way of producing electricity,” the minister said, adding that Hungary and Egypt intended to establish broad nuclear cooperation.
Meanwhile, Szijjártó said that although Russia’s Gazprom was a reliable supplier of natural gas, Hungary needed to find new energy sources in the interest of diversifying its energy supply. He said buying liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Egypt was an option, adding that plans were in place to build a pipeline to southern Europe with the support of the European Union.