State Secretary for Security Policy and International Cooperation Dr István Mikola paid an official visit to the Republic of the Sudan between 2 and 6 October 2016.
During the course of his visit, he met with Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour and Dr Mohamed El Mustafa Ahmed, President of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament, conducted further talks with the heads of the Sudanese agricultural, financial and health care ministries, and met with the Director General of the Sudanese secret services. In Al-Fashir the Hungarian delegation inaugurated the solar street lighting system operating with a unique Hungarian technology which was installed by the Hungarian company Bán Manufacturing Support Kft.
As part of the visit, Dr Mikola handed over the first draft of the bilateral Economic and Technological Cooperation Agreement to his Sudanese partner, and signed a memorandum of understanding regarding political consultation between the two Foreign Ministries.
The Sudanese partners agreed that agriculture and health care should be the two key areas of the revival of relations between the two countries. They confirmed that they await the involvement of Hungarian businesses in the development of their health care, as well as in the establishment of food safety chains. They pledged their support with the nomination of Miklós Szócska for the position of Director-General of the World Health Organization and Hungary’s membership of the Human Rights Council.
At the meetings the partners confirmed that they will make every effort to detain the waves of illegal migration that traverse Sudan, and agreed with the Hungarian position that the causes of migration must be eliminated in the countries of origin, primarily by supporting economic development.
Dr Mikola had meetings with several senior members of the Sudanese business community at the Sudanese-Hungarian Trading House in Khartoum, and met with representatives of the Magyaráb ethnic group originating from the Carpathian Basin who live in North-Sudan.