President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán signed a Joint Declaration on Expanded Strategic Partnership Ties in Budapest Tuesday, the presidential press service said.
During the official visit, intergovernmental and interdepartmental documents were also inked, including the Extradition Treaty, the Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Climate Change, interagency agreements in the field of natural disaster management, cooperation in the field of science and innovation, peaceful nuclear energy, and others.
During the talks at the Carmelita Palace Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Viktor Orbán discussed the ways to deepen the Uzbek-Hungarian strategic partnership and multifaceted cooperation.
Reported that the current portfolio of joint investment projects is $500 million. Projects worth another 1.5 billion euros have been prepared for the current visit.
The parties underscored the importance of increasing the two-way trade figures initially up to 500 million euros, including through import substitution and the GSP+ status. For these purposes, laboratories will be accredited in accordance with the standards of the European Union, a program for pre-certification of goods and a joint platform for assisting exporting companies will be launched.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Viktor Orbán also exchanged views on the international and regional issues, emphasizing the importance of continuing cooperation in the fight against terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking, human trafficking and other modern security challenges.
They agreed to adopt the Investment Partnership Program during the next meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission in Budapest in July.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev proposed to resume the Uzbek-Hungarian Business Council and hold its next meeting in the near future with the broad involvement of businesses and discussed launching direct air traffic between the two countries with an aim to step up business, tourism and cultural exchanges
He also proposed to declare the next year the Year of Uzbek and Hungarian Culture.
In addition, the parties considered possibilities of introducing a system of double diplomas and creating branches of Hungarian universities in Uzbekistan.
Earlier on the same day, President Mirziyoyev met with the Hungarian business leaders, notably, the top managers of OTP Bank, BDPST Group, 4iG, Indotek, MVM, Duna Group, MOL Group, H2O Consortium, Inpark, Wizz Air and others.
