S Korea Prez Moon Jae-in meets Visegrad Group leaders in Budapest, pledges co-operation

South Korean President Moon Jae-in held a meeting with leaders from Visegrád Group, agreeing to enhance cooperation in various fields including economy, science, technology and climate change. The Visegrád Group is the political and cultural alliance of 4 major European countries namely Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. Thursday’s meet, which was held in the Hungarian capital Budapest, was attended by prime ministers from all the four nations, as per a report by the Associated Press.  

Visegrad wants investment in rapid railway project

During the meeting, the leaders also urged Moon to invest in a rapid railway project that would connect Hungarian capital Budapest to that of Poland-Warsaw. Speaking in the aftermath, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, said that the railway project was the “largest common enterprise” between the V4 states. Furthermore, he emphasises the role of South Korea and said that it had already developed the technology required to materialise the project. It is worth mentioning that once complete, the project would cut short the 800 kilometres distance between the two cities by seven hours. 

“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. “We really hope that South Korean industry will be interested in this development,” he said.

Back home, Moon announced the completion of construction of the world's largest hydrogen fuel cell power plant, which holds the capacity to provide electricity to nearly 250,000 households per year. On 26 October, South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy announced that the 'Shinincheon Bitdream Fuel Cell Power Plant' at the Shinincheon Bitdream headquarters of Korea Southern Power in Seo-gu, Incheon was complete, ANI reported. Since 2017, South Korea has been building the plant with a total capacity of 78 MW in four different stages. The world’s largest fuel cell power plant is operated by South Korea’s largest independent power production company, POSCO Energy and Doosan Fuel Cell. 

(With inputs from Agencies)

(Image: AP)