Foreign Minister: Hungary, Bavaria agree new three-year cooperation pact

Hungary and the German federal state of Bavaria have signed a new three-year cooperation scheme aimed at preserving their shared economic achievements in the current “challenging period”, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Thursday.

“Global politics and the global economy are going through dramatic changes, and times like these increase the importance of stable, predictable and reliable partners,” the foreign ministry cited Szijjártó as saying at a joint press conference with Melanie Huml, Bavaria’s minister for European and international affairs, after a meeting of the Hungarian-Bavarian mixed committee.

The state of Bavaria is Hungary’s top trading partner in Germany and its second biggest German investor, Szijjártó said. Around one-third of Hungary’s exports to Germany flow into Bavaria, he said, adding that bilateral trade turnover reached 15 billion euros last year. The Hungarian government has signed strategic cooperation agreements with six Bavarian companies in recent years, he said.

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“Hard times will always reveal true friends,” and Bavarian businesses proved their loyalty even during the coronavirus pandemic, with 26 companies having invested 28 billion forints (EUR 70.7m) in Hungary, thereby helping to preserve 12,300 jobs, the minister said.

Szijjártó said Hungarian-Bavarian ties had always been based on mutual respect and mutual advantages. The two states also share the goal of preserving their existing economic achievements in the current “difficult environment plagued by war and inflation”.