Minister Martonyi will be representing Hungary at the upcoming ASEM (Asia Europe Meeting) Summit in Laos early next week – said Szabolcs Takács, Deputy State Secretary for Global Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at a roundtable discussion with journalists.

The heads of state and government of ASEM countries meet for a consultation every second year, Deputy State Secretary Takács told the press. The foreign ministers meet every other year; the last time it was Hungary that hosted their meeting in Gödöllő during the Hungarian EU Presidency.

Deputy State Secretary Takács stressed that any kind of cooperation could be initiated under the aegis of ASEM, and this is why the ministers in charge of environment protection or health care also had their meetings over the past years. He underlined that Hungary wanted to play an active role in ASEM cooperation.

Foreign Minister Martonyi will be addressing the issue of sustainable water management at the summit in Laos. Economic, regional, security policy, social and cultural questions will be on the agenda of the meeting, and the challenges of disaster relief activity will also be discussed.

In the course of the summit the Hungarian Foreign Minister is scheduled to have bilateral talks with his counterparts from Myanmar and Thailand as well as with the Deputy Foreign Minister from Singapore.

Following the summit Minister Martonyi will be flying to Sri Lanka – on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries – where he will be meeting his counterpart, Minister Gamini Laksman Peiris. Minister Martonyi will also be meeting with Minister for Water Management Affairs Dines Gunavardena and Minister for Economic Affairs Basil Rajapaksa. Hungarian businessmen will be accompanying the Minister, and they will take part in the talks about bilateral cooperation in water management.

(MTI, Ministry of Foreign Affairs)