Roundup: Turkish PM in Hungary to boost business, energy cooperation

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is on a two-day official visit to Hungary aimed at strengthening trade, energy and business cooperation between the two sides.

Davutoglu's visit is the follow up of the first meeting of the High Level Strategic Council, an intergovernmental conference that was set up in December 2013.

The Turkish prime minister's visit, scheduled for a two-day trip on Monday and Tuesday, is accompanied by a large business delegation that will take part in a Business Council meeting in Budapest.

Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto was in Ankara last month to lay the ground work for the Davutoglu's visit.

Hungary is interested in discussions with new energy routes that will transport Russian gas to Europe via Turkey after Moscow decided to discard plans regarding the construction of South Stream.

Both Turkey and Hungary has set up a joint committee on energy cooperation in January.

In December, citing obstacles by the European Union (EU), Russia declared that it abandoned South Stream pipeline project, which would have run under the Black Sea to southern Europe.

The new pipeline, dubbed as Turkish Stream, is projected to go through Turkish territory instead.

"We also want to start negotiations as early as possible when Turkey decides to purchase natural gas from Russia. We want to start negotiations on how some portion of this natural gas can be transported to central Europe through Turkey," Szijjarto said in Ankara.

Hungary is already negotiating with Serbia and Macedonia to secure gas delivery through Greece-Macedonia-Serbia line that will connect to Turkey.

During a visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Budapest last week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the two countries reached a political agreement on a new gas deal without disclosing details.

Turkey is already moving ahead with its own pipeline called the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline project that will pipe 16 billion cubic meters of gas a year from Azerbaijan to Turkey and eventually to Europe.

Hungary wants to link to gas hub in Turkey that purchases gas from Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran via pipelines.

Turkey and Hungary had 1.9 billion U.S. dollars trade volume in 2014, according to the Turkish government data. Both countries set a goal of reaching to five billion dollars in trade turnover soon.

Hungarian Eximbank is in the process of opening a new branch in Istanbul to support businesses with a credit line of 170 million dollars earmarked for Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises that are active in the Turkish market.

Hungary, EU member state, is also supportive of Turkey's bid to become a EU member. Turkey has been in accession talks with the EU since 2005 but faces opposition by several EU member states. Enditem