After meeting nine African counterparts on the sidelines of a meeting of EU and African Union foreign ministers in Rwanda on Tuesday, the foreign minister highlighted that over the past few years Hungary has laid emphasis on developing cooperation with nations in Africa, “the continent of the future”.
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, held talks with the foreign ministers of Angola, Cameroon, Gambia, Liberia, Morocco, Mozambique, the Republic of South Africa, Sierra Leone and Zambia. As a result, Hungary will receive 20 scholarship-holders from Liberia and 50 from Sierra Leone annually. With the new agreements taken into account, there will be 1,385 scholarship-holders from 20 African nations in Hungary, he said.
The minister said that as trade turnover with the Republic of South Africa has increased by 68 percent this year, Eximbank has increased its related credit line to 500 million dollars. He said that a Hungarian company is producing biometric passports for Angola. In the field of education, 550 Angolan students have applied for a total of 50 Hungarian state scholarships. In Zambia, Hungary has opened a consulate and a Hungarian agricultural firm has become one of the biggest employers in Zambia’s northern region, the foreign minister said. Further, Hungary has started exporting farm seed to Gambia, he said, adding that Mozambique is a future partner in the modernisation of that country’s agricultural sector. He said the foreign minister of Morocco will visit Hungary before the end of the year to hold talks with his Visegrad Four counterparts on ways to stop migration.
Photo credit: Facebook/Szijjártó Péter