| 
Hungary’s foreign minister said in New York that Hungary’s aid programme in Afghanistan testifies to the fact that living standards can only be improved by creating a minimum level of infrastructure and an institutional background, and that this could later prove pivotal from the point of view of state-building, advancing democracy and fighting terrorism. Ms Göncz presented Hungary’s standpoint on the fifth working day of this year’s session of the UN General Assembly at a forum organised to discuss the Millennium Development Goals. She said that success hinged not only on overcoming basic poverty but on improving the quality of governance and observing human rights too. As regards Hungarian assistance activities in Afghanistan’s Baghlan province, she emphasised that eliminating poverty depended on job-creation and training opportunities so as to offer hope for the future to the younger generations. She added that co-operation on the part of the Afghans was also necessary. Ms Göncz held seven bilateral meetings in the course of the day. She met the diplomatic leaders of Grenada, Columbia, Egypt, Salvador, Uruguay, Brazil and Turkey, and asked them to support Hungary in its bid to join the Security Council as a non-permanent member in 2012-13 and the Human Rights Council in 2010-12. During talks with her counterparts from Egypt and Turkey, plans for the Nabucco pipeline project were raised, as the leaders of both countries have been invited to attend a conference on the subject to be organised in Budapest next January. Ms Göncz told her Turkish colleague that Hungary supports Ankara’s efforts to join the European Union, as well as the country’s endeavours to meet membership criteria. Late in the afternoon, Ms Göncz met the leaders of Hungarian organisations living in New York and its environs. The meeting was attended by such well-known personalities as Professor István Deák, László Hámos, chairman of the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation, Professor of Gynaecology Géza Kaáli and Ágoston Molnár, director of the Hungarian Museum in New Brunswick. Ms Göncz stressed at the meeting that Hungarian-U.S. relations were a real success story since investments from the United States had yielded great dividends for Hungary. The closeness of ties is signalled by the fact that high-level bilateral consultations have been held on many important subjects, such as the Georgian crisis and energy security, and that these talks reflected common values. She noted that the Hungarian government gives a clear preference to building the Nabucco pipeline. Ms Göncz also said the government does not tolerate any form of extremism taking root in Hungary.  In the evening, Ms Göncz attended a reception at the consulate general, where the Hungarian flag recovered from under the rubble of the World Trace Center was hoisted. The flag, which had suffered damage and was crumpled and dirty, was found five years after the blasts, during the removal of the remains of the southern tower. The Hungarian government and the foreign representation have decided to exhibit it as a way of honouring the memory of the over 3,000 innocent victims. The flag placed in the representation room of the consulate has a note attached which reads: “As a symbol of Hungary’s allegiance as an ally of the United States after the terrorist attacks, and its active commitment to the international fight against terrorism”.
(September 25, 2008) |