Türkiye and Hungary signed five trade cooperation protocols during a visit by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the Hungarian capital Budapest on Monday, a senior official said.
Trade Minister Ömer Bolat in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, said he, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, and Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacır attended a meeting with Hungary's Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto and Energy Minister Csaba Lantos to discuss joint investments and new collaborations.
The parties agreed to convene the first session of the Joint Economic and Trade Commission (JETCO) committee on Feb. 12, he informed.
JETCO will provide a platform for representatives from the business circle of Türkiye and Hungary to explore mutual opportunities, he added.
Erdoğan's visit to Budapest came at the invitation of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and coincided with the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. During the visit, the two countries signed a cooperation agreement to enhance bilateral relations to the level of enhanced strategic partnership.
Pledging to maintain efforts to increase Türkiye's trade volume with Hungary in line with goals set out by President Erdoğan, Bolat said, "The Hungarian side stated that our request for an increase in land transit quotas will be taken into consideration and that they will put the development of relations with Türkiye on the agenda during the EU Presidency, which they will assume in the second half of 2024."
"Our trade volume approached $4 billion (TL 116.2 billion) in the first 11 months of this year. We are determined to achieve our joint goal of $6 billion," Erdoğan said in a post on X.
"We plan to further strengthen our ties in areas such as the defense industry and energy, where we already have fruitful cooperation," he added.
Among the agreements in a wide array of fields from education to technology, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the defense industry was signed by head of Türkiye's Defense Industries Presidency Haluk Görgün and defense chief Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky on the Hungarian side.
Furthermore, the Hungarian state-owned energy conglomerate MVM and Turkish Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ) inked a MoU to increase the cooperation in the field of natural gas that would allow Hungary to buy natural gas from Türkiye as soon as next year.
"I hope that the agreement, which includes possible partnerships in the field of natural gas trade, cooperation in the field of underground natural gas storage and LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminals, and the use of hydrogen in natural gas pipelines, will be beneficial for both countries," said energy minister Bayraktar.
In addition, in a separate statement, Bayraktar noted the two sides "signed a 'Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Field of Nuclear Energy' between our ministry and the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade in the presence of the leaders."
"With the signatures, we aim to make our cooperation in this field more institutional and to increase the sharing of knowledge and experience between the two countries on safety and sustainability in the field of nuclear energy," he said.
Türkiye is currently in the process of building its first nuclear power plant in the southern province of Mersin – the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) – which is expected to commission its first reactor next year. Moreover, it has been holding talks with several countries, including Russia, about building a second power plant in the Black Sea city of Sinop.
Bayraktar in mid-September said Türkiye was in talks with China to build the country's third nuclear plant in Kırklareli province in the Thrace region.
