Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said Hungary, as president of the EU in the second half of the year, will work to promote closer ties between the European Union and the United Arab Emirates.
Minister Szijjártó welcomed the visit of Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, his UAE counterpart, to Budapest on Tuesday, noting that the sheikh last paid an official visit to Hungary eight years ago. Sheikh Abdullah’s current visit is of particular importance for several reasons, Szijjártó said, adding that “responsible countries” such as the UAE played a stabilising role in its region amid today’s serious challenges around the world. The foreign minister expressed appreciation for the UAE’s role in brokering the Abraham Accords, and expressed hope that the Middle East would soon return to “the spirit of the agreement”. He welcomed that the UAE has joined “the club of nuclear energy”, which he said “will open new horizons” in Hungarian-UAE ties in training and research, noting that nuclear reactors have been operating in Hungary for more than fifty years. Hungary, Szijjártó said, had always held UAE in high regard for the role it played in the fight against terrorism. “This is rather important from the point of view of the security of the region and the world,” he said.