Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said in Rome on Wednesday that Hungary and Italy already maintain significant cooperation in security and the economy, while developing energy cooperation will add another dimension to existing relations.
After talks with Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani, the foreign minister said Italy had never before played as important a role in the Hungarian economy as currently, with Italy being the second most important target of Hungarian exports after Germany. Bilateral trade was record high last year, exceeding 8 billion euros, he added. Italy is among the ten largest investors in Hungary and cooperation is also increasing in the defence industry, with a growing number of joint investment projects, he said. “Our defence cooperation in NATO has reached a new level, with Italians making the largest foreign contribution of 250 soldiers to the enhanced forward presence multinational battalion in Hungary, and there are ongoing talks about how to further expand security cooperation within NATO in this area,” he said. The development of energy cooperation will add another dimension, with a recent agreement with Slovenia on natural gas interlinks that will open the way for establishing a Hungary-Slovenia-Italy natural gas supply corridor, he said.