According to a statement sent of the ministry, the minister said that after talks with several ministers of the Indian government, there was less talk than necessary about the importance of the relations between the two countries and their extremely positive impact on the Hungarian economy.
He said that bilateral trade and economic cooperation have brought many benefits for Hungary, but one important obstacle has not yet been overcome: the lack of direct air links.
He therefore welcomed the fact that this time all existing agreements have been concluded to allow Wizz Air to launch a direct flight between Budapest and Mumbai on 7 days a week this year.
"The world's most populous country, one of the fastest growing countries in the world, will now be directly accessible from Hungary in a few months," he said.
"And we are now in talks to have a flight between New Delhi and Budapest. This will require an amendment to our bilateral aviation agreement. Today we have taken the first step in this direction," he added.
He then stressed that the direct non-stop connection will give a huge boost to business, learning, diplomatic, and tourism ties.
Szijjártó said that both Hungary and India are members of the international peace camp, and both governments pursue a patriotic policy of putting the national interest first, which has led to excellent cooperation between the two countries based on mutual respect, which also brings great economic benefits.
"The largest Indian companies are making a series of modern investments. They employ tens of thousands of workers in Hungary. And now they are increasingly moving from manufacturing to research and development, bringing their investments in research and development of cutting-edge technologies to Hungary and creating jobs for Hungarian researchers and engineers," he said.
He pointed out that bilateral trade will set a new record this year with around one and a half billion dollars and more and more Hungarian companies are finding their place in India's huge market.
He cited energy drinks producer Hell as an example, for which the South Asian country is already the second most important export market. He also underlined that BHE Bonn Hungary has been supplying components for all major defense and aerospace developments to India for twenty-five years, while several domestic companies have also become market leaders in certain segments of the healthcare industry.
"At the same time, we also speak out together for peace. The war in Ukraine must end, there must be a ceasefire and peace talks," he added.
