“The next UN Secretary-General should come from Central-Eastern Europe and it would be useful if the next leader of the international organisation came from within the Western Balkan region”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Thursday in Budapest at a press conference following his meeting with Montenegrin Foreign Minister and candidate for United Nations Secretary-General Igor Lukšić.
Mr. Szijjártó stressed that the stability of the Western Balkans is especially important to Hungary and could be significantly increased by a new UN Secretary-General from the region. In reply to a question, he noted that the Hungarian Government feels Mr. Lukšić is qualified for the post of Secretary-General, but has not yet come to an official decision on which of the several candidates from the region it will be supporting.
The Foreign Minister said his only request to his negotiating partner with relation to the functioning of the United Nations was that he do everything possible following his appointment as Secretary-General in the interests of declassifying secret documents in the international organisation’s archives pertaining to the events of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
Mr. Szijjártó also told the press that Hungary was doing everything possible to assure Montenegro’s accession to NATO in May and the Government would be asking the Hungarian Parliament to, if possible, be the first to ratify the agreement once the accession treaty is signed. Montenegro’s joining NATO would be important from the point of view of European security policy because it would mean every country along the northern shore of the Mediterranean would be a member of the defensive alliance.
In addition, the Hungarian Government is also pushing for NATO expansion to gain new impetus, the Minister said, according to whom looking inwards is not a good answer to security challenges, and accordingly Hungary would also like Macedonia and Georgia to join the military organisation in future.
Mr. Szijjártó told the press that Eximbank had opened a 61.5 million US Dollar credit line to facilitate the development of bilateral relations and the food industry was at the centre of economic cooperation in view of the fact that Montenegro requires imports within this field. According to Mr. Szijjártó, Hungary will primarily be able to export livestock and premium quality food products to Montenegro, in addition to which intensive negotiations are also underway regarding the participation of Hungarian enterprises in the development of Montenegrin infrastructure including building new roads, modernising the country’s electricity network and sports-related development projects.
The Foreign Minister also informed the press that 30 university students from Montenegro would be receiving scholarships to study in Hungary beginning in September and there is a good chance that a direct passenger air route would be launched between Budapest and the capital of Montenegro by the end of this year or early in 2017. The Government has decided to publish a call for tenders aimed at there once again being direct flights between the two capitals, he explained.
In his statement, Mr. Lukšić said the time had come for the next UN Secretary-General to originate from the Western Balkans and he was happy that the Hungarian Government shares this opinion. In reply to the request made by his Hungarian counterpart, Mr. Lukšić said he would be presenting his programme as candidate for the position of UN Secretary-General on Tuesday and it places significant emphasis on making the operations of the organisation more transparent.
The Montenegrin Foreign Minister thanked Hungary for its support towards his country’s possible accession to NATO, the new loan opportunity provided by Eximbank and the opportunity university students from Montenegro were being given to study in Hungary, and voiced his hope that direct flights between Budapest and Podgorica wold be launched soon.
(MTI)
