MOSCOW, February 16. /TASS/. A package of five documents is due to be signed during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s upcoming visit to Hungary on February 17, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said Monday.
Ushakov said agreements on interregional cooperation, on cooperation in higher education, healthcare, a document on the opening of Hungary’s consulate general in the Russian city of Kazan, as well as an agreement on training of personnel in the nuclear power sphere are set for signing.
"Russia has for more than one year retained the status of Hungary’s largest foreign trade partner," he said.
Mutual trade turnover in 2014 totaled $7.9 billion, a decline of 16% on 2013. The volume of accumulated Russian capital investment in Hungary’s economy has reached $1.5 billion, and Hungary’s investment in Russia’s economy — about $2 billion.
"The key task at the current stage is to reverse the trend when mutual trade volumes are decreasing. The decrease in the past years has totaled 10-16%," Ushakov said.
He said the issue is being addressed in detail by the Russian-Hungarian intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation, which is led by Agriculture Minister Nikolay Fyodorov from the Russian side. A regular meeting of the bilateral intergovernmental commission is to be held in April in Kazan, the capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan.
The talks may touch upon issues of rolling stock supplies for metro trains in Budapest. Russian enterprises, in particular, Metrovagonmash, are ready to take part in the tender to deliver 222 metro cars for the Budapest subway. The contract is worth €250 million ($285 million).
Ushakov said development of relations between the two countries in the agro-industrial sphere and healthcare are to be discussed at the upcoming talks during Putin’s visit.
The presidential aide said Days of Russian Culture are due to be held in Budapest in late March.
He said Putin’s visit to Budapest is held during the days when the 70th anniversary of the Hungarian capital’s liberation from Nazi invaders is marked.
Ushakov said the Russian delegation is expected to comprise Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky, Energy Minister Alexander Novak, Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova, Economic Development Minister Alexey Ulyukayev and Agriculture Minister Nikolay Fyodorov.
Rosatom state nuclear corporation head Sergey Kiriyenko, Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Popov, Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller and Russian Railways rail monopoly chief Vladimir Yakunin will also attend the talks.