Tibor Navracsics, whose nomination for the post of Foreign Minister on Tuesday got the support of the Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told the hearing that “no one can ever question that Hungary belongs to Europe”. He also told the committee that he sought to restore a consensus in foreign affairs.

The current Minister of Public Administration and Justice emphasized that previously no one had disputed where Hungary belongs to and what kind of foreign policy efforts were needed. In fact all parliamentary parties had supported those policies. Tibor Navracsics took the stance that the last 25 years of foreign policy was a success story; diplomacy represented well the interests of the country regardless of what government was in power.

But as the world changes, he said, external economic and cultural diplomatic assignments would become increasingly important in addition to classic diplomacy. He explained that more concentrated efforts would be made in the future regarding external economy with one ministry institutionally focusing on the tasks which might help productivity and in addition cultural diplomacy would be a huge chance for becoming an effective tool in international relations. He added the government would intend to give further support to this area.

The minister stressed the significance of the Central European region. As he said, the successes of the Visegrad Group (V4) showed that countries were gradually realizing that sense of community. Navracsics’s candidacy was supported with 7 votes for, 3 against and 1 abstention.

(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)