December 11, 2007

16^th Hungarian American Coalition Mikulás Dinner  Hosted By Embassy

On December 7, 2007, Ambassador Ferenc Somogyi and President Max Teleki co-hosted the 16th Annual Mikulás Dinner of the Hungarian American Coalition (HAC) at the Embassy of Hungary on Friday evening, December 7 with about 100 guests, inviting U.S. Ambassador to Budapest April H. Foley as Keynote Speaker.

Ambassador April H. Foley, President Max Teleki and Mrs. Andrea Bors Somogyi

As the official MC of the evening, HAC Honorary Chairman Edith Lauer introduced both Ambassadors and President Teleki with her usual wit and well-placed anecdotes.

HAC Chairman Emerita Edith Lauer

Ambassador Somogyi emphasized that the Hungarian-American bilateral relations are in excellent shape, and stressed the importance of the future cooperation in all possible fields.

Ambassador Ferenc Somogyi

Ambassador Foley announced that she is certain that Hungary will meet the requirements of the American Visa-Waiver Program in 2008, including the 10 per cent visa refusal rate threshold, since the tendency of the refusals has been going downward during the last five years, and the Embassy of the United States in Budapest currently works with a refusal rate under 10 percent.

Ambassador April H. Foley 

She talked about the most important issues of bilateral relations, such as freedom and democracy, strengthening the global security environment, Hungarian structural reforms, and the significance of the increase of American FDI in Hungary and the fight against corruption. Ambassador Foley emphasized how much Washington appreciates the Hungarian peace-making and humanitarian missions in Afghanistan, Cuba, Balkans and the Middle East, and the Hungarian commitment towards NATO. She mentioned that she personally lobbied for the decision that the NATO center of strategic air freight capacity be transferred to Pápa, Hungary instead of Ramstein, Germany or Constanza, Romania.

HAC President Max Teleki announced that the Hungarian movie "Torn From The Flag" will be screened on December 8th at the Johns Hopkins University in  Washington, DC.

HAC President Max Teleki