“Cooperation with Serbia is key to guaranteeing energy security”

Hungarian-Serbian cooperation is a real success story, and without each other the two countries would find it extremely difficult to secure their strategic interests in terms of national economy and security, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said.

Following the meeting of the Hungarian-Serbian Joint Economic Committee, the Minister stressed that both countries attach great importance to bilateral cooperation.

Our strategic interests in terms of national economy and security would be very difficult to realize and achieve today without each other.

I think that this sentence also clearly shows that it is perhaps difficult to establish a deeper relationship than the one we have achieved with Hungary and Serbia through our hard work in recent years,” he emphasized. The politician noted that in today’s era of threats, one of the most serious challenges is to guarantee the security of energy supply, and cooperation between Hungary and Serbia is key in this area as well.

At a joint press conference with Serbian Minister of Internal and Foreign Trade Tomislav Momirović, Mr. Szijjártó mentioned five points in regard to energy supply:

1. The volume of natural gas entering Hungary through Serbia now exceeds 20 million cubic meters per day. Last week, annual deliveries reached 5.6 billion cubic meters, already higher than last year’s full-year figure. In addition, today, there is 160 million cubic meters of natural gas stored in Hungary for Serbia.
2. A joint natural gas trading company has not only been established, but has already started its operations and has become one of the leading players in the regional natural gas trading market.
3. The Hungarian-Serbian-Slovenian regional electricity exchange will be operational by the end of this year, contributing to energy security and, as the market will be larger, prices will be kept under control.
4. The two countries will continue to cooperate in the field of oil transport, and an agreement had been reached earlier to build a new pipeline between Százhalombatta (near Budapest) and Novi Sad (Újvidék). The 310-kilometer pipeline will cost around EUR 500 million and construction could start next year, and will take three to three and a half years.
5. Reaching an agreement on the border crossing point is an important task, given the decision to double the capacity for electricity trade. Preparatory work is underway, the crossing point has been designated and will be ready by 2028.

Péter Szijjártó highlighted that bilateral trade is consistently close to record levels, at around EUR 5 billion. “And that is why it is extremely important that trade between the two countries is physically unhindered. This also applies to road and rail transport,” he underlined. He also pointed out that 150 kilometers of both tracks on the southern section of the Budapest-Belgrade railway line in Hungary had been laid, which would bring the technical completion of this section to the end of the year, and that construction work on the northern section had also started.

This means that the works on the Hungarian side will be completed by 2026,”

he stressed.

The unproblematic cooperation between the Hungarian and Serbian governments ensures that there will be no obstacles to the development of inter-enterprise cooperation, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade noted. “Together with you, the representatives of the Hungarian economy, we have done a lot in Hungary in recent years to ensure that we have nothing to fear, that Hungarian companies do not have to fear international competition, and therefore it is in the interest of Hungary, the Hungarian economy and Hungarian companies that the world economy should be free, flexible, and rules-based,” he said.

And for this to happen, the freedom of the world economy and world trade must be fully enforced. It is good news that our guests today, the Serbs, think exactly the same way on this issue,”

the politician added. “Hence, the smooth cooperation between the two countries, the two governments, ensures that there is no obstacle to building business-to-business cooperation,” Mr. Szijjártó continued.

He also pointed out that Hungary is implementing a responsible neighborhood policy in the Western Balkans, in which Serbia is a key player. “Serbia also accounts for 73 percent of our trade with the region. Every year, our trade turnover there fluctuates around EUR 5 billion, usually close to record levels,” he said, underlining that the Serbian economy is growing dynamically, with a four to five percent increase in output this year.

Via MTI; Featured image via Facebook/Szijjártó Péter