(4 Nov 2021) The leaders of four Central European nations met in Hungary's capital Budapest on Thursday where they urged South Korean President Moon Jae-in to consider investing in a rapid train line between Budapest and Warsaw.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, hosting a summit of the so-called Visegrad Group (V4), said the potential rail investment was the largest common enterprise of the V4 countries — a pact which includes Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland.
"South Korea has developed technology in this field, and a south to north travel corridor in Europe cannot be achieved if the (V4) capitals are not connected with a rapid train," Orban said, adding that the rail investment aims to reduce travel time on the 800km (500 mile)-long line from 12 hours to five.
"We really hope that South Korean industry will be interested in this development," Orban said.
The summit of V4 leaders came as South Korean President Moon neared the end of a nine-day tour of Europe, where he earlier attended the Group of 20 summit in Rome and the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.
At the news briefing in Budapest, each of the leaders emphasized growing trade relations between South Korea and the V4, which Orban said had increased 40% in the last five years.
Moon called the V4 a "newly emerging manufacturing hub in Europe," and noted that the group is the second-largest trading partner and largest investment destination for South Korea in the European Union.
Moon said that South Korea would take a "leading role" in the development of transport, energy and infrastructure in the V4 countries.
Also present at the summit was Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who said that South Korea should look at the V4 as the most important partner in the EU.
More than 30% of total South Korean exports to the EU end up in the V4 countries, Morawiecki noted.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis urged South Korea to bid on a project to renew a nuclear power plant in Dukovany, saying that the East Asian nation has "excellent technology" and that the two countries had already conducted intensive talks.
Prime Minister Eduard Heger of Slovakia said that the V4 aims to develop further cooperation with South Korea in the battle against COVID-19, including testing equipment, vaccines, ventilators and other medical devices.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
