“The U.S. Secretary of State’s visit next week proves that Hungary is a dependable NATO ally”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI on Thursday. The Minister issued the statement in response to the fact that American Chief National Security Advisor John Bolton announced on Twitter: head of U.S. diplomacy Mike Pompeo will be visiting Budapest next week.

The Prime Minister’s press chief, Bertalan Havasi said the meeting would take place on Monday.

“Political relations between Hungary and the United States have been steadily improving since the Republican administration took office”, Mr. Szijjártó explained. “We can now state that out political relations are gradually reaching the same level as our economic and defence relations”, he stated.

The Minister said that in his view a clear sign of this is the fact that a U.S. Secretary of State is visiting Hungary again after eight years. According to Mr. Szijjártó, this proves that Hungary is a dependable NATO ally that is a committed supporter of reinforcing NATO, and of the United States’ efforts to combat global terrorism within the framework of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.

“Economic cooperation between the two countries has never been so good. The 1700 American companies operating in Hungary provide employment to 105 thousand Hungarians, and American companies are continuously searching for opportunities to realise further investments in Hungary”, he said.

“In future, the United States could also play a major role in the diversification of Central Europe’s energy procurement sources”, he pointed out.

“The Hungarian Government has always based its foreign policy on mutual respect, and this mutual respect has characterised Hungarian-American bilateral relations since the Republican administration took office”, the Hungarian Foreign Minister emphasised.

“Hungary has never joined the mainstream ‘political chorus’ that has been continuously criticising the Republic administration’s domestic and foreign policy measures since President Donald Trump took office”, Mr. Szijjártó stated.

“Bilateral political cooperation has been given renewed impetus by the fact that both government’s regard the security of their own citizens as paramount, and accordingly are taking a determined stance in opposition to migration. This was also made clear by the fact that our two countries took the most determined and loudest action against the UN Global Compact for Migration”, he added.

The Minister told the press that on Monday he will be holding a joint press conference with his U.S. counterpart, who will also be meeting the Minister of Defence and will be received by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

(MTI)