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Central Europe
September 7, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 15
Orban seeks more business with Central Asia’s Turkic nations on first Kyrgyzstan trip
Levente Szilagyi in Budapest
Hungary has opened a $65mn credit line to sup- port partnerships between Hungarian and Kyrgyz businesses in Kyrgyzstan, Minister of Foreign Af- fairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said in Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek on September 4. His announce- ment came following a meeting between Hungar- ian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Kyrgyz Presi- dent Sooronbay Jeenbekov.
Szijjarto travelled to Kyrgyzstan with a delegation led by Orban, who became the first Hungarian prime minister to visit the remote Central Asian country. Orban was invited for the sixth meeting of the Turkic Council, established in October 2009 by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey. The presidents of the four countries convened in Kyrgyzstan's resort city of Cholpon-Ata. Orban and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, presently seen as the leading proponent of business and economic reform in Central Asia, attended the meeting as "honoured guests."
Hungary is ready to open a new chapter in coop- eration with Kyrgyzstan and other Turkic nations of Central Asia, Orban said, adding that Hungari- ans considered themselves as late descendants of Attila, of Hun-Turkic origin, and that Hungarian "is a relative of Turkic languages". Linguists would argue with that last comment as the mother
tongue of Hungarians is considered to be a Finno- Ugric language.
Orban's visit to Kyrgyzstan is one aspect of his strategy to strengthen ties with Central Asian states as part of his Opening to the East policy and it is indirectly in line with his constant bashing of western liberal democracies.
He has repeatedly said that the world's economic balance is shifting towards the East and that the West is in decline. According to Orban, the coun- tries of the Turkic Council are gaining weight in Hungary's diplomacy. Hungary has reached stra- tegic partnerships with Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan.
However, trade volume with these countries is basically non-existent and despite efforts to ease Hungary's dependency on the EU, the bloc re- mains by far its biggest trading partner, account- ing for nearly 80% of exports and imports.
Orban and Jeenbekov discussed ways to strength- en economic, scientific and cultural cooperation. The parties signed a tourism agreement and a deal on increasing the number of scholarships for Kyrgyz students studying in Hungarian universi- ties from the current 25 to 75.