State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations Péter Szijjártó announced that the new bridge over the river Danube between Hungary's Komárom and Slovakia's Komarno, which will be built according to the joint statement signed on Tuesday 2 October by the Prime Ministers of Hungary and the Slovakia, could be open to traffic by 2016-2017.

State Secretary Szijjártó talked on Wednesday on public television m1’s morning show Ma Reggel, where he stated that construction costs will be shared equally by the two countries, which will also develop the necessary roads leading to the bridge on their own territory. Additionally, they will also continue the Ipoly river bridges program.

At the meeting in Pilisszentkereszt, the two Prime Ministers also agreed on further developing road transport connections. Commenting on this, the State Secretary said that by 2014, 16 new border crossing points are expected to be established between Slovakia and Hungary, and three others will be renewed. As a result, life will become much easier in several sub-regions.

According to State Secretary Szijjártó, this new type of Hungarian-Slovakian relations is not like it was previously, when "they would shout at each other from opposite banks of the Danube"; dialogue between the two Prime Ministers is totally normal and rational.

(Prime Minister’s Office)