Tunisia and Hungary will enhance their counter-terrorism and border guarding cooperation, fifty Palestinian students will receive scholarship grants at a Hungarian university, Hungary will take joint action with Lebanon in the interest of the protection of Christians in the Middle East, and Hungary will support Kuwait’s membership of the UN Security Council.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó agreed on these issues at his bilateral talks held in Cairo on Tuesday, of which he informed the Hungarian news agency MTI afterwards.
As Tunisia has a more than 500-kilometre-long common border section with Libya where the situation is highly unstable and where one cannot yet speak of an operational State, the country has to make extraordinary efforts to protect this border section. To perform this task, it needs Hungarian border guarding and counter-terrorism technology and expertise, the Minister said.
Hungary is happy to provide such technology for Tunisia because Tunisia’s security and stability are important. "Each and every North-African country which becomes unstable may pose a further security threat to Europe”, he added.
The Hungarian Foreign Minister agreed with his Palestinian counterpart that every year 50 Palestinian students will receive scholarship grants at a Hungarian institution of higher education.
Additionally, the Palestinians are highly reliant on major Hungarian involvement in the modernisation of their water management.
Mr Szijjártó agreed with the Lebanese Foreign Minister that the two countries will take joint action with a view to protecting Christian communities in the Middle East, and will perform joint operations to preserve Christian churches and other Christian values.
The Hungarian Minister agreed that Hungary will support Kuwait’s membership in the UN Security Council for the period between 2018-2019. Additionally, they also finalised an agreement on Hungarian-Kuwaiti sports cooperation.
At the meeting of Foreign Ministers of Egypt and the V4 countries, the Central-Europeans confirmed their support with a view to the stability of the Arab country. "Should Egypt become unstable, millions of people would set out from the country’s shores for Europe. Central-Europe now has a specific, vested interest in the successful implementation of reforms by the leadership of Egypt and the continued stability of the country”, Mr Szijjártó pointed out.