S. Korea, Hungary elevate ties to strategic partnership, will expand trade in promising industries

한-헝가리 정상회담…"전기차 배터리 등 유망산업 교역확대" President Moon Jae-in held a summit in Budapest Wednesday with his Hungarian counterpart where the two sides agreed to upgrade their ties... and work together for carbon neutrality. On Thursday, he'll attend the South Korea-Visegrad Summit. That group is made up of Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland - all key economic partners with Seoul. Our Blue House correspondent Kim Min-ji, who is traveling with the president, files this report from Budapest. South Korea and Hungary have agreed to elevate their relations to a strategic partnership and step up cooperation in promising industries. President Moon Jae-in on a state visit to Budapest held a summit on Wednesday with Hungarian President Janos Ader. "We agreed to further strengthen our bilateral economic cooperation. We also highly evaluated our two-way trade that reached a record-high last year despite the pandemic. We'll make efforts to expand trade in promising future industries, such as electric vehicle batteries." Bilateral trade between the two countries reached an all-time high of 3-point-6 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. South Korea is also the number one foreign investor in Hungary which hosts the production factories of big South Korean companies, including Samsung SDI and SK Innovation. During the summit, the leaders also agreed to work toward the common goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. "South Korea and Hungary have both pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. It's the joint opinion of both countries that carbon neutrality is impossible without nuclear energy." To this, Seoul's top office later explained that President Moon said that while nuclear energy will be used until carbon neutrality is reached... the country will not be building new plants and will shut ones deemed too old. The Moon administration has long insisted that it would gradually phase out nuclear energy. "President Ader explained Hungary's policy of nuclear energy and renewable energy. In response, President Moon said that, while the role of nuclear power continues until carbon neutrality is reached in 2050, he will not construct new plants, close down old ones and expand the mix of renewable and hydrogen energy to achieve carbon neutrality." President Moon's visit to Hungary is the first by a South Korean leader in 20 years. The two countries established diplomatic ties in 1989. "Building on the summit with Hungary President Moon will now seek to bolster ties with the Visegrad group which also includes the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland in areas such as defense, nuclear energy, and science technology. The V4 is one of South Korea's main export partners within the European Union and home to some 650 Korean companies. Kim Min-ji, Arirang News. Budapest." #MoonJaein #Hungary #Diplomacy 📣 Arirang News(Facebook) :   / arirangtvnewsa   📣 Arirang News(Twitter) :   / arirangtvnews   📣 News Center(YouTube) :    / newscenter_arirangtv   2021-11-04, 08:00 (KST)