Bilateral meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary - H.E. Mr. Péter Szijjártó

New York – FAO Director-General QU Dongyu met His Excellency Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, in New York on the sidelines of the UN 2023 Water Conference.

The Director-General renewed his appreciation to Hungary for hosting the FAO Shared Services Center and the FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia in Budapest. The Director-General added that FAO is ready to make full use of Budapest's strategic location to better serve Members in the region, and further highlighted that Hungary stands to play an increasingly important role in multilateral cooperation.

The Director-General encouraged the Minister to tap into the potential of the FAO Hand-in-Hand Initiative and its Geospatial Platform to deepen engagement, in particular with countries in the region, around key priority areas such as biodiversity conservation and water resource management. The Shared Services Center could help amplify and increase visibility of the Initiative, the Director-General added, and further informed that these efforts are part of FAO’s wider commitment to working more closely with countries that host FAO offices around the world, including the headquarters in Rome.

The Minister thanked FAO for the long cooperation between the Organization and Hungary, which has spanned 55 years. He added that Hungary is proud to host the FAO Shared Services Center, where over 70 percent of its human resources are Hungarian. The Minister also expressed interest in widening the FAO scholarship program to attract more youth from Hungary.

Speaking on the war in Ukraine and the impact on regional and global food security and commodity markets, the Minister mentioned that Hungary is following the situation closely, including as part of the Organization’s policy and market insights on world food prices and trends. The Director-General provided an overview of FAO’s support to farmers and livelihoods in Ukraine, and of the Organization’s continued work on policy guidance support and market insights around food, feed and fuel needs and trends in the region and beyond, in line with its mandate a technical, UN specialized agency.

The Director-General also highlighted important FAO platforms, such as the World Food Forum and its pillars, including the Science and Innovation Forum and the Hand-in-Hand Investment Forum, which have contributed to developing actionable solutions to transform global agrifood systems, and to which Hungary can contribute and benefit from, especially around the leveraging of digital technologies in food and agriculture.