Hungary-Africa Week: ‘Africa continent of opportunities, future’

Hungary regards Africa as a continent of opportunities and the future, and will seek to build cooperation based on mutual respect and interests with the countries there, the foreign ministry’s state secretary for aiding persecuted Christians told the opening of the Hungary-Africa Week event in Budapest on Monday.

“Hungary is aware of the challenges and threats facing Africa. Slow economic growth, food crisis, armed conflicts, religious persecution, natural disasters and climate change all need to be tackled as humanitarian issues,” Tristan Azbej said.

At the same time, “finding a solution for those challenges is also in Hungary’s national interest because the deepening crises could result in tens of millions of people setting off to Europe, to Hungary,” he said, adding that “the outer line of defence for Europe’s security is in Africa”.

Hungary will strive to shape ties based on mutual dependency, rather than “condescending aid policy which does not contribute to lasting development”,