During the official visit, Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Murat Nurtleu held bilateral talks with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary Peter Szijjarto, DKNews.kz reports.
The sides discussed prospects for further strengthening of Kazakh-Hungarian cooperation in political, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres and interaction within the framework of international and regional organizations.
The Kazakh Foreign Minister noted that Astana and Budapest have established a meaningful political dialogue at all levels.
“Hungary is our close ally, as well as the only country in the Central and Eastern Europe that has established a strategic partnership with us. We are united not only by political and economic interests, but also by common historical roots, kinship and fraternal relations” Murat Nurtleu
In turn, Peter Szijjarto noted with satisfaction the high level of the established friendship between the countries across the entire spectrum of interaction.
“We are ready to develop relevant areas of our partnership and will make every effort to do so. Hungarian companies have excellent opportunities in Kazakhstan” Peter Szijjarto
Special attention was paid at the talks to the expansion of trade, economic, investment ties, as well as issues of cooperation in the field of energy. The parties noted the existence of unrealized potential between the countries and confirmed their readiness for active cooperation in the elaboration of specific joint projects.
Over the past 20 years, investments worth more than 300 million US dollars have been attracted from Hungary to Kazakhstan, and now the parties are negotiating the implementation of investment projects worth 490 million US dollars in such areas as mechanical engineering, agriculture and logistics.
Kazakhstan fully supports existing and new projects and is ready to provide comfortable conditions for further successful activities of Hungarian business.
A separate item on the agenda of the negotiations was the issue of studying Kazakh students in Hungary, in particular, emphasis was placed on the need of preparing technical specialists. It was noted that Hungary annually allocates 250 grants for the education of our students and today more than 1 thousand people study at Hungarian universities.
The heads of the foreign ministries also considered a number of international issues on which Kazakhstan and Hungary interact and coordinate their efforts, including with regard to the simplification of the EU visa regime for Kazakhstanis. The political dialogue once again confirmed the closeness of positions on topical issues on the international agenda.
The Foreign Ministers expressed satisfaction with the results of the negotiations and expressed confidence in the further deepening of fruitful cooperation between the two countries.
Following the meeting, the parties signed an Action plan between the Ministries of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Hungary for 2024-2026.
On the same day, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Murat Nurtleu met with the President of the Hungarian oil and gas company MOL Group, Zsolt Hernadi. The parties discussed the successful activities of the company in Kazakhstan, in particular, the imminent launch of a large gas condensate field “Rozhkovskoye” in the West Kazakhstan region.
