Azernews.Az

Hungary and Azerbaijan signed five agreements during Hungarian President Pal Schmitt’s official visit to Azerbaijan on Friday.

The documents cover cooperation between the two countries’ defense ministries, as well as memorandums of understanding on cooperation between the ministries of internal affairs and justice. Also, the tax ministries pledged to cooperate in tax management, while the Hungarian and Azerbaijani governments signed an agreement on cooperation and mutual assistance in the event of emergencies.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said while hosting his Hungarian counterpart that political relations between the two countries have given a powerful incentive to the development of economic cooperation.

"I believe that your visit will be very successful. Thus, a new stage will begin in Azerbaijani-Hungarian relations," President Aliyev said.

President Schmitt, for his part, said Azerbaijan has made tremendous achievements since gaining independence 20 years ago.

"When referring to these results in Europe, they say European countries could have needed 100 years to achieve them," Schmitt said.

Schmitt stressed that Hungary is Azerbaijan’s strategic partner. He added: "I believe that overall, our countries have a lot of opportunities that should be used."

The Azerbaijani president said in a media statement that the agenda of his talks with the Hungarian leader included regional security, particularly, the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh. He reiterated that the long-standing dispute could be resolved strictly on the basis of international law.

Aliyev said energy cooperation was among the issues discussed at the meeting. He said the relations between the European Union and Azerbaijan are successfully developing, and Hungary has always supported this cooperation.

Hungary is one of the potential buyers of gas to be produced during the second stage of developing Azerbaijan’s Shahdaniz gas condensate field in the Caspian Sea, which begins in 2017.

The Hungarian and Azerbaijani presidents attended a joint business forum in Baku on Friday as well. The event was joined by the two countries’ businessmen working in the fields including agriculture, industries, construction, education, consulting services, ICT, finance, healthcare and logistics.

The Hungarian president’s two-day visit was the first one paid to Azerbaijan.