Mr Orbán met former U.S. Secretary of State Albright

Dátum: 2004-02-03 12:57:00, eredeti URL: http://archiv.fidesz.hu/index.php?Cikk=19663
KCMDB-be feltöltve: 2024-05-04 19:28:22.724497, Feltöltő: fidesz_hu_scraper_v2

Former Prime Minister and Fidesz President Viktor Orbán and former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met in Budapest last Thursday, expressing their common position that all efforts must be made so that NATO be given a prevailing role again. There is no reason in the future that the United States apply discriminate immigration procedures vis-à-vis Hungarian citizens, Mr Orbán said.

Regardless of the earlier debate on the Iraq issue, we must make all efforts necessary so that NATO regain the role it had fulfilled prior to the Iraqi war, as the key player of transatlantic cooperation, Mr Orbán said following the meeting. The President of Fidesz evoked memories of the 1999 Kosovo crisis, when a strong cooperation emerged between the then U.S. Secretary of State and the Orbán-government. This meeting demonstrated, Mr Orbán added, that Hungary is a country which is characterised by a transatlantic mindset, i.e. determined commitment to a simultaneous cooperation with the European Union and the United States. This is not only our cultural heritage, but also a national interest, he added. Mrs Albright and Mr Orbán agreed that NATO is necessary for a balanced and mutually rewarding relationship between Europe and America, therefore, between Hungary and America, and that NATO exemplifies this cooperation.

Addressing the issue of U.S. visa policy, the President of Fidesz commented that the kind of treatment Hungarians are exposed to belongs to the past and not to the future. Hungary has been a NATO member state for years and will become an EU member state from May. Statistics about the stay and behaviour of Hungarians in America do not verify a discriminate treatment by the United States, Mr Orbán said. We require equal treatment with EU member states, he added.

2 February 2004