Wizz Air could return to Moldova. The subject was addressed during a meeting between the Moldovan foreign minister Nicu Popescu and his Hungarian counterpart, Péter Szijjàrtó.
On an official visit to Chisinau, Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjàrtó declared that his country supports Moldova’s European path and advocates for the enlargement of the European Union.
“We have to admit that the European Union has weakened a lot lately. At the same time, we believe that external partnerships strengthen the European Union. That is why we encourage member states to enlarge the European Union. This is the reason why Hungary has provided all possible support to Moldova to be successful in its intention to join the EU. Hungary will further provide all the support for Moldova’s accession intentions to succeed”, said the Hungarian foreign minister.
For his part, Nicu Popescu noted that trade relations with Hungary are constantly growing, and possibilities of developing the economic potential will be discussed during a forum involving Hungarian businessmen which will be organized in the near future.
“Our hope and objective is to obtain an invitation from the European Union to launch accession negotiations by the end of this year, as a result of Moldova implementing the recommendations of the European Commission. Hungary has traditionally supported our EU membership aspirations, and today we discussed ways in which Hungary will continue to strongly support our European path. We also have good commercial and economic cooperation with Hungary. Bilateral trade in 2022 doubled compared to 2020, reaching $231 dollars. We want to develop this trade relationship by strengthening ties between our business communities. 62 companies with Hungarian capital are currently active in Moldova. Hungarian companies are present in the banking, pharmaceutical and agricultural fields among other areas. In the future, we intend to organize an agriculture business forum”, said Popescu.
He added that Moldova wants the return of the Hungarian company Wizz Air, which has suspended all its flights from Chisinau since March 14, citing security reasons. “I assured my Hungarian colleague that Moldova is looking forward to it and we will work with the Hungarian authorities to speed up the moment when Wizz Air returns to Moldova. While this is a commercial matter, with Wizz Air being a private company, the Moldovan Government will do everything on our side for this airline to return to our market, so that people, businessmen, our foreign partners can visit Moldova much easier. We will discuss concrete ways for the return of Wizz Air, taking into account, among other things, that the Chisinau Airport has under the control of the state, which allows us to promote the national interest in discussing with foreign partners”, said Nicu Popescu.
“Wizz Air is a Hungarian company, but not with state-owned capital. It is important that Wizz Air is present in as many points in the world as possible, because in this way Wizz Air ensures connection between our country and our partner states. We regret that Wizz Air has suspended its operations in Moldova and we would like it to return as soon as possible. We know that Wizz Air wants to return because operations in Moldova were profitable”, said Péter Szijjàrtó.
Also today, the Moldovan Ministry of Culture and the Hungarian Ministry of Culture and innovation signed a cultural cooperation plan for 2023-2027.
