The foreign minister said relations between Portugal and Hungary are characterized by mutual respect and accepting the fact that the two countries have different views on certain issues.
After meeting counterpart Augusto Ernesto dos Santos Silva, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said it was clearly understood that the Hungarian government’s anti-migration position differed from the Portuguese government’s policy. At the same time, a shared point where effective and strong cooperation is planned in the upcoming period is the push for the European Union to develop an effective Africa strategy, he added.
According to MTI, Minister Szijjártó said developments needed to be implemented to improve living conditions for Africans in order to enable them to find success in Africa. Hungary is helping African countries with tied aid loans, development programs, and by offering more than 1,000 scholarships to African students, he said.
Minister Szijjártó highlighted the importance of economic cooperation and said that a HUF 7 billion (EUR 20m) Hungarian-Portuguese financial cooperation fund had been set up to support Hungarian and Portuguese medium-sized companies involved in digitalization and digital developments.
The minister added that an agreement on space industry cooperation was signed in line with which Portugal and Hungary will work together to develop satellite technologies, satellite data exchange, robot technology and telecommunications developments.
Minister Szijjártó said an additional area for cooperation is education. Portuguese language is taught at four universities and eight secondary schools around Hungary and efforts will be made to offer more young Hungarians the chance to study the language, he added. As a result, Hungary has joined the Community of Portuguese Language Countries as an observer and offers scholarships to students from member countries, teaching them Hungarian music training methodologies, he said.
Finally, the minister said Hungary is also involved in important water management programs which are currently in development.