By Shant Krikorian

Nearly three months after the Ramil Safarov affair, where suspicions were raised of a backroom deal between Budapest and Baku in the transfer of the Azeri officer Ramil Safarov – Peter Szijjártó, Hungarian State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations, led a delegation to Baku last week for the first opening of a “Hungarian Trade House” in Azerbaijan.

The intensified push for economic relations between Azerbaijan and Hungary comes at the helm of Hungary’s bleak economic climate. Two weeks ago, Moody’s downgraded Hungary’s credit rating to below investment grade, or junk, with Commerzbank’s EM country briefing noting that “the negative connotation in terms of dwindling foreign capital participation is obvious”.

While many of Viktor Orban’s tough domestic fiscal measures have raised eyebrows, Budapest still denies that Safarov was extradited to Azerbaijan in exchange for purchased Hungarian bonds and securities totaling nearly €3 billion.

The latest move in opening the Hungarian Trade House has been seen as a way to help Hungarian small and medium-sized businesses expand in high growth Eastern economies, a product of Orbán’s foreign policy in financing the Hungarian Economy in what his administration has called “The Eastern Opening.”

While the high level trade delegation was primarily in Baku to discuss the possible opening of a direct WizzAir route from Budapest, Szijjártó also expressed interest in the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector project, with Hungary being both a possible customer and transporter of Azeri liquefied natural gas.

Indeed, constraints imposed on Hungary from organizations like the European Union and the IMF, have galvanized Orbán’s government into seeking warmer relations with Central Asia, the Maghreb, and the Far East. “Trade Houses” are now being planned to open in Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, China, and Russia in 2013.