Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said in Amman on Thursday that representatives of Hungary and Jordan have agreed on moves to further strengthen their bilateral economic cooperation.
Minister 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 that the two countries have doubled the turnover of bilateral trade since 2010.
Thursday's agreements will promote Hungarian medical technologies and equipment in improving health services in Jordan, the statement quoted the minister as saying.
Minister 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.
Minister 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.
Minister 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 by 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.
Minister 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 an annual 400 scholarships to Jordanian students. Under the programme, Hungarian universities have over 1,000 Jordanian students among their citizens.