Cooperation with the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS) brings Hungary a big competitive edge, Hungary’s minister of foreign affairs and trade said on Friday in Samarkand. Europe is now grappling to ensure its current and future energy supplies, Péter Szijjártó said at the OTS summit. “If we look at the facts without political and ideological bias, it is clear that energy supplies cannot be ensured without the Turkic states,” he said. The gas pipeline reaching Hungary and Europe via Turkey, Bulgaria and Serbia is the only safe and technically sound route to the region operating at full capacity these days, he said. “An operational TurkStream is key to Hungary’s energy security,” he said. Hungary will also import “green electricity” from Azerbaijan, in line with an agreement between that country and the EU to import electricity via Georgia, Romania and Hungary, he said. The OTS summit adopted a decision on setting up an investment fund, in which Hungary will also participate, he said.
Drawing investment to Hungary is a key strategy to stave off European recession, and eastern investors in the country overtook western ones in 2018, he said. Szijjártó noted that the past 12 years have seen trade revenue between Hungary and the Turkic states growing two-and-a-half-fold, to 4.5 billion dollars.