ISTANBUL

Azerbaijan and Hungary signed a joint declaration Monday on an enhanced strategic partnership amid an official visit by an Azerbaijani delegation led by President Ilham Aliyev which arrived in the country over the weekend. 

Following meetings in closed and expanded formats, Aliyev and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban signed the joint declaration during an official ceremony that was also attended by the ministers of both delegations.

A statement by the Azerbaijani presidency noted that six other documents were signed between the two countries, including five memorandums of understanding (MoUs) on further enhancing cooperation in the fields of energy, culture and tourism, food security, migration and space.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto also signed a protocol on cooperation between their ministries.

Earlier, Aliyev and his Hungarian counterpart Katalin Novak also held an expanded meeting, during which they discussed energy cooperation between the two countries.

“Energy is on the top of our agenda. And today we will sign an important MoU which, I think, is a very important step, because this is the first document which will be signed in order to start operation in the area of gas supply,” Aliyev said after the meeting.

For her part, Novak emphasized that energy was one of the major issues they discussed.

“We were deprived of our natural energy resources more than 100 years ago. So we don't have it anymore. And we meet good friends and partners so that we can now diversify our energy resources, because you know that for the present, we are dependent on Russian oil and gas,” she added.​​​​​​​