BUDAPEST, March 10 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) should boost its Eastern Partnership initiative, said Hungarian Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto Friday.
He made the remarks while addressing a news conference here with his Moldovan counterpart Andrei Galbur.
Szijjarto acknowledged that recent events in North Africa, the Middle East, and Ukraine had taken the spotlight away from the Eastern Partnership (which involves EU's six eastern European partners, namely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine) and focuses on trade, economic strategy, as well as other issues.
The success of the Eastern Partnership is very important to the EU's long-term security, Szijjarto said, adding that peace and stability in Moldova had a direct impact on all of Europe.
Galbur said that Hungary had strongly supported Moldova's European integration process and had also provided financial and technological assistance to his country.
Szijjarto said that Hungary and the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) had started up a joint development project in Moldova to which Hungary had contributed 400,000 U.S. dollars to update irrigation technologies. At the same time, he said Hungary's Eximbank was offering Moldova an 85-million-euro (90 million U.S. dollar) line of credit to improve economic ties.
Szijjarto said that bilateral trade had exceeded 100 million U.S. dollars in 2016, but acknowledged that Hungarian exports had accounted for 96 million of that, a tremendous surplus on Hungary's side.
Galbur agreed that bilateral trade had plenty of room for improvement, which made Eximbank's line of credit particularly welcome.
Prior to the news conference, the two ministers signed a two-year agreement on educational and scientific cooperation and a protocol related to incomes acquired in one another's countries.
