Speaking at a joint press conference with Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Sorin Mihai Grindeanu, Szijjártó said Hungary and Romania are sticking to their earlier targets to inaugurate connecting motorways every five years.

"We did it in 2015 and in 2020, too. And we're preparing for another success in 2025 when a connection between Hungary's M3 motorway and…Satu Mare [in Romania] is completed," he added.

He said the M44 motorway would connect via Méhkerék with the Arad-Oradea motorway south of Salonta.

Szijjártó noted that bilateral trade between Hungary and Romania exceeded EUR 12 billion last year.

Grindeanu said a tender for a bypass around Salonta could be called by year-end.

He acknowledged Hungary's support for Romania's efforts to join the European Union's passport-free Schengen zone. He also said authorities are backing Beba Veche as the site for a planned border crossing on the frontiers of Hungary and Serbia.

In a statement issued by his ministry, Szijjarto said Hungary will need Romania as a transit country for an annual 2 bln cubic meters of gas it plans to get from Azerbaijan. He noted that the interconnector capacity between the two countries' gas networks has been expanded to 2.5 bln cubic meters a year.

Szijjártó said Bucharest has decided on connecting future hydrocarbon production in the Black Sea with a distribution point from where Hungary can take deliveries of gas through an existing pipeline.