Hungarian Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Péter Szijjártó is shedding new light on a railway deal it made with Egypt back in 2018 in partnership with Russia.
The foreign minister posted on Facebook: “The Hungarian railway industry has been given the opportunity of the century with the Egyptian-Russian-Hungarian agreement to produce 1,350 passenger coaches for the Egyptian National Railways.
“This is the largest international order in the history of the Hungarian railway industry, with more than 1,000 wagons now in production.”
“At the same time, it is a huge opportunity for further expansion in the highly demanding Egyptian and African markets.”
“In the meantime, sanctions in Brussels are a problem to be overcome, so today’s task in Cairo is to remove all obstacles to the delivery of rail wagons and to facilitate the further expansion of the Hungarian rail vehicle industry in Africa.”
Back in 2018, Hungary announced that a Russian-Hungarian consortium had inked a €1 billion deal with Egyptian National Railways for some 1,300 passenger carriages over five years, with most of the manufacturing to take place in Hungary.
In 2020, after financing was finally approved, Russian Export Centre CEO Veronika Nikishina, told press that “despite the obstacles posed by the coronavirus pandemic, all involved did everything possible to bring the contract into effect.”
She further added: “The contract is an illustration of the demand for Russian technology abroad. The unique financing solution, prepared by REC Group in partnership with our Hungarian colleagues, could not be matched by the competition from China, Italy, India, Spain and Romania.”
Clearly, the war in Ukraine and subsequent sanctions against Russia have created yet another obstacle, one which the foreign minister and Egypt feel will soon be a thing of the past.
On Saturday, Szijjártó also took to Facebook to post about his phone conversation with his counterpart, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, regarding migration. Szijjártó thanked him for Egypt’s “responsible policy to bring stability to the North African region and to help Europe to stem the flow of illegal migration.”
“Without the responsible policy of the Egyptian government, the migratory pressure on Europe would be much more serious,” Hungary’s foreign minister wrote, adding that the two countries would be elevating their relations to “a privileged strategic partnership.”
Szijjártó went on to “urge Egypt to receive the €4 billion in financial assistance promised by the European Union as soon as possible, without any artificial conditions,” adding that Hungary is also offering help on the ground, particularly given the need to keep terrorists out of Europe.
“We have also agreed to closely coordinate our efforts in the Sahel region, where the reduction and containment of the terrorist threat is in our common interest,” he posted.
According to a report out of the European Commission last December, €1 billion was made available to Egypt under the European Commission’s Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) program. The commission also noted that a further €4 billion “currently under discussion,” together with the MFA, “forms a fundamental part of the EU-Egypt Strategic and Comprehensive Partnership.”
