Rabat- Morocco’s National Center for Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology (CNESTEN) and the Hungarian Center for Energy Research signed a cooperation agreement on Tuesday. The agreement aims to strengthen cooperation between the two research centers in the field of nuclear energy.
Under this agreement, both centers commit to scientific and technical cooperation in research, training and knowledge sharing. Researchers and students in the field of nuclear energy will also benefit from advanced training and new opportunities for cross-country collaborative research. The collaboration will allow for the exchange of technologies and of expertise.
The cooperation between the two parties is, according to a joint press release, focused on the use and application of research reactors, as well as the development of experiments in their use.
The Hungarian ambassador to Morocco, Miklós Tromler, tweeted that the agreement’s objective is to create “concrete projects in the fields of nuclear energy, food, agriculture, and medicine.”
The director of CNESTEN, Khalid El Mediouri, told Morocco’s state media that the agreement will explore new prospects and develop new topics of interest such as the development of the uses of research reactors, the production of radiopharmaceutical products for use in the medical, industrial, and agricultural sectors.
For his part, ambassador Tromler stressed that “cooperation with Morocco in the nuclear field is not new.” He noted that several agreements have been signed, including one in 2017 between the Moroccan Agency for Nuclear and Radiological Safety and Security and its Hungarian counterpart.
“This agreement is only the beginning of a long and fruitful cooperation,” he said, hinting at a shared desire to raise this cooperation to an intergovernmental level between the two countries and see it expand to other sectors.
Morocco and Hungary have in recent years signed multiple agreements of cooperation in various fields, including scientific and academic production.
In December 2020, Morocco’s Federation of Health Industries (FMIS) and Hungary’s Association of Medical Manufacturers signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to improve cooperation in the medical industry.
During an official visit to Budapest, in March 2020, the Moroccan Minister of Equipment, Abdelkader Amara, discussed means to strengthen bilateral cooperation in water management and road infrastructure.
On November 25, 2019, the two countries signed an MoU that allows 35 students from Hungary to attend university in Morocco for 10 months in order to learn Arabic.
The arrangement also allows Moroccan students to study the Hungarian language and culture in higher education institutes.
