The United States may continue to rely on Hungary in the fight against terrorism and the reinforcement of the European leg of NATO, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó stated in an interview given to the Hungarian news agency MTI by telephone on Thursday after he had talks on the telephone with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Mr Szijjártó added: his US counterpart said thanks for the fact that Hungary takes part in the fight against terrorism. At the same time, Hungary is proud of being one of the just over two dozen countries which send actual military personnel to contribute to the fight against the terrorist organisation called Islamic State and which wish to maintain their role, the Minister pointed out.

„The Hungarian Government agrees with the Republican President (Donald Trump) in that NATO should have been much more successful, and should have done far more so far in the fight against terrorism as the security of the world is not threatened by a state player today, but by a terrorist organisation, the Islamic State”, Mr Szijjártó stressed. Rex Tillerson invited his Hungarian colleague to Washington for 21 March where the Foreign Ministers of the coalition against the Islamic State will meet in order to discuss the future of their counter-terrorism efforts.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister reassured his counterpart that Hungary supports the US President’s concept regarding the reinforcement of NATO, and in particular, its European leg, and „we, for our part, are making every effort to play an important role in this”.

The two Foreign Ministers also spoke about Russia during their telephone conversation. In Mr Szijjártó’s words, it is in Hungary’s best interest that there should be a balanced and pragmatic relationship between Russia and the United States „as whenever there was a conflict between East and West during the course of history, Europe, and in particular, Central-Europe bore the brunt of it”. He said: Budapest sincerely hopes that the new US Administration and the leadership in Russia will find a way to establish better relations than they had in recent years.

The two politicians agreed that the economic competitiveness and growth of a country are most dependent upon security, democracy and stability. In this context, Mr Szijjártó informed Rex Tillerson that the Hungarian investment environment has improved recently and there are now 1,650 US businesses present in Hungary which employ more than a hundred thousand people in total. At the same time, the value of US investments in Hungary exceeded USD 9 billion, he added.

In addition to these topics, Mr Szijjártó congratulated the new US Administration on its victory as, he said, the Hungarian Government rooted for the Republicans (in the presidential election), given that there were several elements in Donald Trump’s programme which are much closer to the policies pursued in Hungary than the notions of the Democrats. Rex Tillerson said: the United States is a great friend of Hungary.

(MTI)