| Kinga Göncz told Parliament’s Committee for Foreign Affairs and Hungarian Minorities Abroad that the recently endorsed External Relations Strategy is designed for the period until 2020 because Hungary – as a trusted partner – wants to show how it is positioned and what its intentions are on the international stage across governing cycles. The Foreign Ministry formed the final version of the strategy on the basis of a wide-ranging agreement resulting from consultations with 2,500 analysts, economic players, social partners, local governments and non-governmental organisations, as well as Budapest-accredited diplomats. Ms Göncz stressed the foreign ministry's endeavour to reach a consensus for the reason, among others, that this would best promote long-term external relations, reaching far beyond foreign policy in a classical sense and greatly determining the country’s room for manoeuvre. The minister and the foreign ministry had naturally requested the parliamentary parties’ opinions too, but the opposition party of Young Democrats unfortunately did not see the need to share its opinions in writing and did not form an agreement with the others, preferring instead to form its own strategy. It is all the more regrettable that this main opposition party took this course of action because there are many similarities between their ideas and the foreign ministry’s strategy, and it should have been possible to arrive at a consensus on such an important strategy using the ministry’s draft. It is only to be feared that divisiveness will be further aggravated, and further deepened by a parliamentary vote, added the foreign minister. With the endorsed strategy, the government sets a flexible framework for action – nothing is carved in stone – which is designed to react to the world and the country’s immediate region whose conditions are continually shifting; besides this it does not wish to serve up a short-term “action plan”. The accepted principles and values of each and every Hungarian parliamentary party are secured. The document provides the main directions of the country’s foreign policy and foreign relations – “competitive Hungary in the European Union”, “successful Hungarians in the region”, “a responsible Hungary in the world” – and serves the security of the nation’s interests by enhancing the existing three-fold priority system to encompass European Union and globalisation challenges. Kinga Göncz noted that the government has taken the view – and continues to do so – that the system of values and long-term possibilities for the country should be commonly determined. The government is ready to enter into consultations on the external relations strategy at parliamentary committee-level in the future, and seeks to co-operate with other political forces in its implementation. (April 8, 2008) |