Israel and the Solomon Islands established diplomatic relations for the first time Wednesday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced.
Israel’s representative to the Solomon Islands will be its ambassador in Fiji, a ministry spokesman said. And the Pacific island nation’s envoy to Israel will be an ambassador based in the Solomon capital of Honiara, which is situated on the island of Guadalcanal.
The Solomon Islands, which lie east of New Guinea, consist of the southern islands of the Solomon group: Guadalcanal, Malaita, Santa Isabel, San Cristobal, Choiseul, New Georgia and numerous smaller islands.
In another diplomatic development, Hungary’s minister of communications, transport and construction arrived in Israel on Tuesday to sign an air traffic agreement with his Israeli counterpart.
Andras Derzsi of Hungary and Transport Minister Moshe Katsav signed the accord Wednesday. It establishes regular flights between Tel Aviv and Budapest this month by Israel’s E1 A1 Airlines and Hungary’s national Malek Airlines.
Derzsi also signed a memorandum of understanding for bilateral cooperation in the area of communications with Communications Minister Gad Ya’acobi.
A formal accord between Israel and Hungary will be signed at the end of May, when Ya’acobi is due in Budapest for an official visit.
There are still no direct-dialing facilities between the two countries, even though there may be as many as 100,000 Jews in Hungary. Such an arrangement could be established as part of the accord, with other fields of cooperation including satellites and cable TV.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
