June 11, 2009

New Foreign Minister Balázs Meets Secretary of State Clinton

Hungary’s new Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Péter Balázs, visited Washington DC on June 10, 2009, to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other partners.

The Minister gave a presentation at the European Institute in which he outlined the current state of the process of European integration. He outlined instability and the rise of extremism as the main problems facing the European Union. The lecture was attended by representatives of several embassies and the European Union Delegation, experts from CSIS, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Organization of American States and the World Bank, as well as the representatives of the U.S. and Hungarian media.
 

In the afternoon, the Foreign Minister met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. They discussed areas of U.S.-Hungarian cooperation, including the mission in Afghanistan, the future of the Western Balkans, the situation of Hungary’s Roma population, Russia, energy security and the Nabucco pipeline project. Minister Balázs expressed to Secretary Clinton that Hungary’s alliance and friendship with the United States is an important pillar of its foreign policy and that Hungary’s new government has been rigorously implementing its crisis management program. Secretary Clinton praised Hungary as a reliable ally and hailed such Hungarian efforts as the leadership of a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan and the basing of C-17 aircraft in Pápa.

After their meeting, Secretary Clinton and Minister Balázs exchanged the ratification documents of the bilateral treaties on extradition and mutual legal assistance and signed the protocol on the exchange in the presence of the media in the Treaty Room of the State Department. Before signing the documents, the two leaders made remarks about their meeting and U.S.-Hungarian relations.

Click here to watch the video of the Secretary's and the Minister's remarks or click here to read the transcript on the State Department's website.
 

Later, the Minister met with the Co-Chairmen of the Congressional Hungarian American Caucus, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Steve LaTourette (R-OH). The Minister gave a summary of the crisis management measures of his government and they discussed matters related to U.S.-Hungarian relations.

He also met with leaders of the Hungarian American community, including Zoltán Bagdy and Frank Koszorus, Jr., Co-Presidents of the American Hungarian Federation; László Hámos, President of the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation; Imre Lendvai-Lintner, Executive Director of the Hungarian Scouting Association in Exteris; August Molnár, President of the American Hungarian Foundation; Maximilian Teleki, President of the Hungarian American Coalition; Emery Imre L. Tóth, former Co-President of the American Hungarian Federation.
 

At the end of the day, Minister Balázs briefed the U.S., Hungarian and international media about his meetings at a “Newsmaker” event at the National Press Club.