Hungary to reopen embassy in Malaysia

Hungary is set to reopen its embassy in Kuala Lumpur, a move aimed at enhancing relationship between Malaysia and Hungary, its Foreign Minister, Dr Janos Martonyi said yesterday.

He said the Hungarian embassy in Kuala Lumpur was closed following a budget constraint in 2009.

“We firmly believe that we have started a new face in our bilateral relationship. We will reopen our embassy here in Malaysia which was suspended in 2009,” he told reporters in a joint press conference after a courtesy call on Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman at Wisma Putra here today.

Martonyi who was accompanied by a five-member delegation, was on a two-day visit to Malaysia, starting yesterday while a bilateral meeting was held to discuss other areas of mutual interests.

“He (Martonyi) said Malaysia was among important countries in the region. He said that he would prepare a report when he returned to Hungary and the reopening will go through specified procedures,” he said.

The Hungarian embassy was established in 1991.

Earlier, Anifah said Malaysia would further strengthen bilateral ties and cooperation with Hungary, especially in education, tourism and sports.

“On education, both ministries are finalizing the agreement. We are looking forward to the signing very soon,” he said.

On tourism sector, Anifah said Malaysia and Hungary were keen to explore the tourism attractions and uniqueness in both countries to attract more tourists.

“We also talked about sports. I explained to His Excellency that Asean is vying to host the football world cup in 2030… Therefore, in the midst of building a formidable team and other discipline of sports like athletics, Hungarians are very advanced in these areas of sports and we can work together,” he said.

As a reliable friend and partner, Anifah said Malaysia offered to serve as an important gateway for Hungary to make its presence in Asean.

Malaysia and Hungary recorded a trade volume of RM850 million in the first eight months this year, an increase of 30 percent while last year, the trade volume recorded was RM1.1 billion.

– Bernama