In a telephone interview with Hungarian news agency MTI on Wednesday, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said that close cooperation with Egypt is needed, as the country plays a key role in the Southern Neighbourhood’s stability.
Talking about his meetings during his visit to Egypt, the Minister said that the stability of the EU’s Southern Neighbourhood – North Africa and the Middle East – is of crucial importance for Europe’s security. As a regional power, Egypt is a key player in the region’s stability, thus the situation in the country has a direct impact on Europe’s security, he explained.
Mr. Szijjártó pointed out that “Egypt plays a key role in keeping the migration pressure (on Europe from the South) under control”. He said that if the country loses its stability, hundreds of thousands of migrants could arrive in Europe and also on Hungary’s southern border.
Experience so far has shown that if destabilisation affects one of the Southern Neighbourhood’s countries – e.g. Syria or Libya – it has “a dramatic impact on Europe”, he explained. He went on to say that Hungary therefore urges closer cooperation between the EU and Egypt, and that the meeting of the Association Council is convened as soon as possible.
Mr. Szijjártó also said that, in addition to security aspects, there are also economic ones to be considered in the development of relations with Egypt. He pointed out that on Wednesday a broad industrial, agricultural and energetics cooperation programme was launched, one of the flagships of which could be a large-scale order involving the manufacture and delivery of 700 rail carriages worth up to EUR 900 million. The most likely candidate to win the order is a Hungarian-Russian corporate consortium; intensive negotiations are ongoing, he added.
Mr. Szijjártó emphasised that water treatment and water management technologies could also play an important role in the further development of Egypt, as the country’s population is rapidly increasing, and the agricultural and food industry also have to keep up with this development. For this the purification of the Nile’s water is required, and in this field there is demand for Hungarian technologies. Similarly, Hungarian know-how is also sought in the management of the water systems of large cities.
The Minister also explained that the construction of a nuclear power plant has started in Egypt, thus hundreds of nuclear engineers and experts will be needed, and their training is also a field in which Egypt counts on Hungarian expertise.