Türkiye, Hungary sign agreements on security, culture, to enhance ties

ANKARA

Türkiye and Hungary on Monday signed agreements on many fields, including aviation, security, technology, culture, and education, to enhance bilateral ties, the President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said.

Erdoğan said the two leaders were close to reaching their earlier goal of $6 billion in bilateral trade and had now agreed to raise the target to $10 billion. “Given the strong potential in our economic relations, we discussed updating our trade volume target to $10 billion,” he said.

The Turkish president recalled that relations had been elevated to the “Enhanced Strategic Partnership” level during the sixth meeting of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council two years ago, noting that political dialogue between the sides has intensified in recent years across bilateral visits and multilateral platforms such as the Organization of Turkic States.

Erdoğan said that during the talks in Ankara, energy, transport, trade, defense and cultural cooperation were reviewed, adding that several agreements were signed to strengthen the legal basis of bilateral ties. He also announced the creation of a new joint planning group under the leadership of the two countries’ foreign ministers, in addition to existing defence and intelligence consultation mechanisms.

On defence cooperation, Erdoğan said joint projects were already producing “positive results” and that Ankara and Budapest were evaluating new ventures, including potential joint production, in light of Europe’s shifting security environment.

Highlighting next year’s designation as the Türkiye–Hungary Science and Innovation Year, Erdoğan said the two countries had prepared 28 joint initiatives covering research and development, digitalisation, artificial intelligence and entrepreneurship.

Turning to regional issues, Erdoğan said he had discussed recent developments in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine with Orban. He praised Hungary’s active engagement in the Organization of Turkic States, describing the informal summit hosted by Budapest in May as “historic” for being the first held within the European Union’s borders.

Reiterating Türkiye’s role in mediation efforts on Ukraine, Erdoğan said Ankara would continue to work for a “just and lasting peace”, stressing: “In this war, there will be no winner – and no loser in a just peace.”