| At a ministerial session in New York of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), the head of Hungarian diplomacy called on relevant states to pass the CTBT agreement into law quickly and unconditionally: on the one hand, it is important that there is a moratorium in effect on every type of nuclear tests, but, on the other, the suspension of them should not substitute the implementation of the agreement, said Kinga Göncz. She added that she welcomed the fact that an effective scientific monitoring system would hopefully be operational throughout the world by the time the agreement comes into force, and will be used for civil and scientific purposes alike, such as for the early-warning of tidal waves and tsunamis.  The minister, who spent Wednesday engaged in multilateral diplomacy, earlier addressed the conference of the Association of Civilisations. The continuation of initiatives under the aegis of the UN is absolutely essential, especially since attempts are being made in many places to exploit religious and cultural differences for political purposes, leading to conflict and violence, Ms Göncz added. She reported that Hungary is making good progress on working out a national plan connected to this programme. The South Hungarian city, Pécs, designated to be the cultural capital of Europe in the year 2010 - together with partner city Istanbul - would like to suggest that the Council of Europe set up a “road built on the heritage of European Islam” with which cultures can engage in dialogue, putting a greater stress on tourism and education among other headings. Pécs University and the Council of Europe’s Budapest Youth Centre are organising a seminar on the cultural traditions of Islam, while the Asia-Europe Foundation and the Hungarian Péter Pázmány University will present at a conference the University’s intercultural lexicon.
At a noon meeting of the foreign ministers of the European Union and United States, Ms Göncz said that maintaining transatlantic dialogue, notwithstanding the possible change of administration in Washington, should be a common goal. She stressed that the concepts of emerging powers such as China and Russia should also be incorporated into multilateral frameworks. She called the attention of these two countries that dialogue does not mean putting aside national interests; quite the opposite, it promotes their realisation. In connection with Georgia, she said that in the responses to the developments, foreign and security policy negotiations with U.S. partners should receive a substantive role. Regarding the Middle East, she said it was important that as a member of the Quartet, Russia should continue to play a constructive role in the region. The minister welcomed that Syria is ready to set its relations with Lebanon in order. One of the main topics of the transatlantic lunch was Afghanistan. Ms Göncz said that a more comprehensive political-strategic approach was needed in practice, too, and, for this, she said it was necessary to continue strengthening the co-ordination of the UN and other international players. She urged at the same time that a framework agreement between the world body and NATO should be signed as soon as possible to serve this aim. The other main issues revolved around the expansion of the North-Atlantic Treaty Organisation: Ms Göncz said she hoped that Albania and Croatia would become full members of NATO in time to participate in next April’s Jubilee summit. In the interest of Macedonia’s future accession, she urged the soonest possible resolution of the Greek-Macedonian name dispute. She said she trusted that Serbia would soon be able to join NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme. At an extraordinary session of the Council of Europe’s ministerial committee, the head of Hungarian diplomacy supported broadening the organisation’s monitoring mechanism to the Georgian-Russian relationship, too, because the Council of Europe in this way would be able to contribute with the greatest effect to resolving the conflict. (September 24, 2008) |