Foreign minister: Lavrov visit to focus on economic cooperation

Budapest, May 24 (MTI) – Talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Budapest will focus on economic cooperation, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Tuesday.

Lavrov’s Wednesday visit was scheduled in February, when Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had visited Moscow, he told MTI.

Hungary-Russian economic relations will be reviewed in light of a European Union embargo and Russia’s counter-measures which have set back bilateral trade. Areas unaffected by the embargo should be strengthened as a way of mitigating the ban’s effect, Szijjártó said. This mainly means Hungarian investments in the machine and food industries in Russia, he added.

The future of EU-Russia relations will also be discussed as well as other international developments in which Russia plays a role and which affect Europe and within it, Hungary. Such a development is the Syrian crisis, to which solutions are sought along the lines of a Transatlantic-Russian cooperation. The topic of Ukraine will also be address, as well as any regional issue that may be raised, Szijjártó added.

The upcoming election in 2016 of the UN secretary general will also be discussed, Szijjártó said, noting that eastern Europe is the only region which had never sent a candidate to the post.

The Russian ministry said on Monday that Lavrov would meet Orbán and Szijjártó during his visit and that sides would discuss the “current state of affairs and outlook” of bilateral relations. The ministry also said the planned Paks nuclear power station expansion project with the involvement of Russia’s state-owned Rosatom would also be on the agenda, a statement said. Hungarian leaders have repeatedly confirmed that Budapest is focusing on the project’s further implementation due to its importance to the country’s energy supplies, it added.

Lavrov last paid a working visit in Budapest in May 2013.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters