Hungary provided 150 ventilators and 40,000 vaccines to Czechia by the end of May

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on Tuesday held talks with his Czech counterpart, Jakub Kulhanek, on unimpeded travel of inoculated citizens into each other’s countries.

Szijjártó told a joint press conference after the meeting in Budapest that they had agreed on the matter in principle, and the details would be clarified shortly.

Kulhanek said the details of the agreement would be set down by the end of the week on lifting all travel restrictions between the two countries for inoculated citizens.

Szijjártó said the Czech Republic was one of Hungary’s closest allies, and bilateral cooperation had been exemplary during the coronavirus epidemic in terms of helping to repatriate their respective citizens stranded abroad, while

Hungary provided 150 ventilators and 40,000 vaccines to Czechia by the end of May.

Despite coronavirus-related impediments, trade turnover exceeded 9 billion euros and large companies of both countries actively invested in the other country, he noted. Oil and gas company MOL operates 304 petrol stations in Czechia, while energy company MVM Energetika already has 1.5 million Czech customers, he added.

Nuclear energy is an important part of the national energy mix in both countries, he said, adding that with a view to attaining climate targets, both jointly opposed negative discrimination against nuclear energy.