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December 8, 2009 Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai paid visit to Washington, D.C. between December 2-5, 2009. Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai arrived in Washington, D.C. Wednesday, December 2, 2009. During his visit he met Vice President Joseph Biden Jr., National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, OMB Director Peter Orszag, and other members of the Administration and Congress. At the meeting with Vice President Biden outstanding international issues were discussed, the efforts and achievements of the Hungarian Government in fighting the consequences of the global economic crisis were explained and Hungarian-American bilateral relations were reviewed. On the economy Biden said "Mr. Prime Minister in a sense you've almost created a model for how to deal with this recession." "There's a real success here," he said. PM Bajnai declared an increase of troops in Afghanistan. At the press spray VPOTUS said "this is a significant commitment" since there will be a total of 500 troops in Afghanistan from a country of about 10 million people. Vice-president Biden said it is a "politically important and courageous decision."
The four-day program was successful. It gave an opportunity to discuss issues of mutual interest with partners from the administration, and to meet Dominique Strauss-Kahn, president of the International Monetary Fund. The PM had several occasions to exchange views with Members of Congress. He also attended the annual dinner of the Hungarian American Coalition, an umbrella organization serving the cause of cooperation between the two countries. PM Bajnai dedicated a whole day to business and academia. He shared his thoughts on economic issues at the US Chamber of Commerce. He had an exchange of views about foreign policy issues with Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Senator Richard G. Lugar, ranking minority member of the Foreign Relations Committee, and members of the Congressional Hungarian Caucus. The Prime Minister met Former State Secretary Madeleine Albright, Former National Security Advisers Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft, and visited the Council on Foreign Relations. The PM granted several interviews to TV and News Agencies, some of which you can see or read below. Click here to see the interview with the PM on PBS Click here to read the interview of Reuters with the PM Click here to read the interview of Dow Jones with the PM
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