Ashraf AboArafe
On September 17, Dr. Badr Abdel Aati, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, received Mr. Peter Szijjarto, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, at Tahrir Palace. The two ministers held an expanded talks session in the presence of the delegations of the two countries. The two sides then signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between the Egyptian “Dabaa” station and the Hungarian “Baksh 2” station, in the presence of Dr. Mahmoud Esmat, Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy.
Ambassador Tamim Khilaf, the official spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, stated that Minister Abdel Aati stressed the importance of continuing to strengthen political relations and frameworks for bilateral consultations between Egypt and Hungary, thanking the Hungarian side for its supportive positions towards Egypt in many files, praising the signing of the strategic partnership agreement between the two countries. His Excellency also pointed out the need to maintain the regularity of the Egyptian-Hungarian business forums in sectors of common interest, stressing Egypt’s keenness to expand the scope of economic cooperation with Hungary to include the sectors of energy, industry, tourism, vaccine production, medical supplies, and peaceful uses of nuclear energy, as well as tripartite cooperation in Africa. Minister Abdel-Ati welcomed the results of the fourth round of the Joint Economic Committee held in Budapest in 2023, expressing his welcome for holding the fifth round of the committee in Cairo in March 2025.
The official spokesman explained that the meeting discussed the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and the tireless Egyptian efforts to reach an immediate ceasefire and the access of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, as Abdel-Ati stressed the need to stop targeting civilians, infrastructure, and UN shelters.
The meeting also touched on the escalation on the Lebanese-Israeli border, and Egypt’s tireless efforts to prevent the expansion of the conflict and the deterioration of the situation in order to ensure stability in the region. The two ministers discussed the developments of the Sudanese crisis, the dimensions of the current situation in Libya, and the developments of the Syrian crisis, in addition to the increasing risks of the ongoing tensions in the Red Sea and their consequences for the security of maritime navigation and international trade. Minister Abdel Aati also stressed the importance of the issue of Egyptian water security and the need to reach a binding legal agreement on the filling and operation of the Ethiopian dam, and the rejection of any unilateral measures or harm to the two downstream countries.
