Foreign minister reopens Hungarian embassy in Lima and Bogota – UPDATE

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó reopened the Hungarian embassy in Lima on Wednesday.

Latin America has become one of the fastest developing regions in the world, with Peru producing an even higher rate of growth, Szijjártó told MTI over the phone. Both Peru and Hungary have a very open economy and pursue an economic policy aimed at free trade. Their economies are in a phase of change, with growing emphasis being laid on research and development, and the sectors with high value added.

“As both countries can significantly profit from developing political cooperation, we have decided to reopen the Hungarian embassy which had been closed in 2006,” the minister said.

It is in both countries’ interest to speed up progress towards free trade. A temporary free trade agreement has been in force between Peru and the European Union since 2013. Hungary ratified the agreement in the same year, Szijjártó said. “It is in our interest that every member country should do so as soon as possible, making it possible for the agreement to be fully implemented,” he added.

Szijjártó praised dynamic relations between Peruvian and Hungarian universities. He noted that

San Marcos University, the oldest university on the American continent, had signed cooperation agreements with the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest and Pécs University in southern Hungary.

The university of music and dance in Lima is currently in talks with Hungarian partners about cooperation, he added.

An agreement will be concluded in the near future to enable 20 students from Peru to study in Hungary on scholarship from next September.

Under another agreement signed on Wednesday,

Peru will allow Hungarian water management, pharmaceuticals, defence industry and border protection technologies to enter its market.