Saudi Foreign Ministry official visits Hungary

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Nizar bin Obeid Madani paid an official visit to Hungary this week and signed a cooperation framework agreement with the Hungarian foreign minister János Martonyi.

After signing the document, the Hungarian foreign minister commented that this agreement will give new impetus to the development of Hungarian-Saudi relations and the Hungarian side expects that the trade and economic ties will substantially be strengthened. “We especially expect Saudi investments,” he stressed, adding that these would primarily be desirable in the field of healthcare and tourism.

As an important field of bilateral cooperation, János Martonyi mentioned education, saying that there are some 70,000 Saudi students in foreign countries and 200 of them are studying in Hungary. He added that he highly valued the current activity of Saudi Arabia in the dialogs between different cultures, civilizations and religions. The Hungarian foreign minister stressed that Hungary would like to use its presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2001 for strengthening relations between the EU and Saudi Arabia – and in a broader sense – the Arab states of the Persian Gulf region, the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Nizar bin Obeid Madani stated that “we attach great importance to our relations to Hungary since we believe that this country – as a bridge between Western and Eastern Europe, a hub – plays a very positive, constructive role in European matters.” He added that hopefully, this role will even be stronger during and after the Hungarian presidency of the European Unioon.

Regarding the bilateral framework agreement, the Saudi official said it will facilitate the signing of concrete cooperation agreements in different fields. He considered his talks with the Hungarian foreign minister as fruitful and expressed his hope that bilateral relations will be stronger in the fields of trade, economy, tourism and culture.