Opening towards sub-Saharan Africa

Hungary may re-open its embassy in Nigeria later this year as part of the country’s opening towards sub-Saharan Africa, according to an interview with Deputy State Secretary Szabolcs Takács of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry.

In an interview with the Hungarian business daily Világgazdaság, the Deputy State Secretary emphasized that re-discovery of East Africa fits in the logic opening towards areas outside the European continent. The sub-Saharan region would be an addendum to intensive networking efforts in Asia and the Arab world.

“The global opening [in Hungarian diplomacy] also set a thematic direction: we would like to have our diplomacy more emphatically displayed in issues that were not necessarily strong previously, but now, require very high attention from a global perspective, such as the international development policy assisting developing countries, climate protection or water diplomacy,” he said.

He stressed that Hungary would like to reinvigorate its relations with the sub-Saharan region. An Africa Forum is scheduled to take place in Budapest in early June, timed for the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), along with a business forum. “We would like to have here the leaders of of OAU as well as leading politicians of several African countries for this series of events,” Takács said.

Since currently, Hungary has an embassy in Kenya and South Africa only in sub-Saharan Africa, there is a strong intention to re-open the Hungarian Embassy in Nigeria that “could happen as early as this year,” the Deputy State Secretary concluded.