On 12 September, 2017, Szilveszter Bus Deputy State Secretary for Opening to the South held consultations with Amal Jadou, Assistant Minister on European Affairs.
On 10 September, 2017 Dr. Csaba Rada, newly appointed Head of the Representative Office of Hungary in Ramallah presented the copy of the Presidential Letter to H.E. Riad Al-Malki, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of Palestine. During the following conversation, Ambassador Rada expressed his commitment to further develop the relations between Hungary and Palestine.
The political directors of the Visegrad countries’ foreign ministries held consultations in Ramallah on 6 June, 2017.
In the framework of the Visegrad Cooperation, the V4 representative offices in Ramallah held a jointly organized cultural festival in the Dar el-Nadwa Cultural Center of Bethlehem on 4 and 5 April 2017.
The Tempus Public Foundation as programme coordinator published its call for applications for Palestinian citizens for Stipendium Hungaricum scholarships for the academic year 2017-18.
On 13 December, 2016 Dr. Géza Mihályi, Head of the Representative Office of Hungary in Ramallah received the letters of His Beatitude III. Theophilos, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem addressed to H.E. Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister and H.E. Zsolt Semjén, Deputy Prime Minister of Hungary, in which His Beatitude thanked Hungary’s contribution of 100 thousand euros for the reconstruction of the Aedicule of the Holy Sepulchre.
On 30 November, 2016, Sándor Fazekas, Minister of Agriculture of Hungary held talks with his Palestinian partner Minister of Agriculture Sufian Sultan in Ramallah. The two ministers discussed the main directions of cooperation opportunities, and agreed to set up an inter-ministerial steering committee in order to identify the specific tasks and develop agricultural relations. They also agreed on encouraging direct networking between Hungarian and Palestinian businessmen.
As in the previous years, Hungary participated in the Bethlehem Christmas Charity Fair on 27 November. Kalocsa, the twin city of Bethlehem and Kecskemét offered donations for the fair, sold by our Honorary Consul and his family on the main square of the city. The income of the fair was offered to local children in need.
Dr. László Csicsmann, Dean of Corvinus University of Budapest met with the leaders of Birzeit University on 16 November, 2016, to discuss the possibilities of cooperation between the two institutions. Following the meeting, he delivered a lecture for the university students under the title “Hungary, Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East”.
Between 5-11 November, 2016, a training course on document security was held for Palestinian experts in the framework of the cooperation between the International Training Center of the Hungarian National Police Headquarters and the Palestinian Interior Ministry. The programme was supported by the international cooperation development fund of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.