FM Szijjártó: Hungary, Jordan set to strengthen economic partnership
Representatives of Hungary and Jordan have agreed on moves to strengthen their bilateral economic cooperation further, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said in Amman on Thursday.
According to a statement from the foreign ministry, Szijjártó spoke at a press conference held jointly with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi after a meeting of the Hungary-Jordan mixed economic committee and welcomed the two countries’ doubled bilateral trade turnover since 2010. The minister’s statement quoted the statement as saying that Thursday’s agreements will promote Hungarian medical technologies and equipment, improving health services in Jordan.
Szijjártó also added that the two countries are mulling an agreement to increase the trade of food products, and noted “serious opportunities” for cooperation in nuclear technology and education. Szijjártó pointed to the serious security challenges faced by both central Europe and the Middle East, saying that both Hungary and Jordan belonged to the peace camp “regularly speaking for peace in the international arena”.
“We highly appreciate Jordan’s efforts to make peace and ease tensions; we appreciate Jordan’s firm and committed actions against extremism,” he said. The latter, he added, was of great significance for Europe amid a rising global threat of terrorism. Szijjártó said it was crucial to ensure that the earlier “diabolical, brutal terrorist attacks” should not recur in the Middle East and that “everybody can live in security and calm”.
The minister highlighted Jordan’s efforts to reduce migration through accommodating millions of refugees on its territory. The Hungarian government supports all international initiatives to increase help to Jordan, he added. “We know that if it wasn’t for Jordan’s responsible attitude millions of migrants would flood Europe and the continent could not handle another wave of millions of migrants,” he said.
He called for an “early and deep” implementation of the strategic partnership between the European Union and Jordan, and urged that Jordan’s military should benefit from the European Peace Facility. He also noted that Hungary had offered funds for this purpose within the framework of NATO.
Szijjártó also noted that Hungary has financed 13 religious-humanitarian development programmes in Jordan in recent years and contributed to the renovation of several church buildings.
Meanwhile, he said that Hungary offers 400 scholarships annually to Jordanian students. Under the programme, Hungarian universities have over 1,000 Jordanian students among their citizens.
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