Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Balazs and one of his predecessors Janos Martonyi spoke about the need to intensify European integration at a conference in Budapest on Thursday.
After four and a half centuries, Hungary is now in a position to choose its allies, Balazs said at the conference sponsored by Penzugykutato and Allianz Hungaria and entitled “Hungary’s place in the world”.
Both the European Union and NATO provide a broad room for manoeuvring for Hungarian foreign policy. Hungary seeks to be a reliable, loyal and predictable ally in both organisations, he said.
As an EU member, Hungary aims to help the organisation operate as efficiently as possible, through the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, Balazs said.
Martonyi, who was member of Viktor Orban’s centre-right government from 1998 to 2002, said that global financial supervision should have been reinforced several years ago. The crisis had perhaps even some benefits insofar as it directed attention to the pressing need of changes. The world required an impulse to re-regulate its international financial system and renew the Bretton Woods regime, he said.
Martonyi agreed with Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai, who addressed the conference previously, that the countries which want to be successful should reach a consensus about the fundamental national issues. The former FM noted that the key issues, such as the approach to the European Union and the transatlantic alliance, as well as the Central European neighbourhood policy had been a matter of consensus for long.
Martonyi said he saw a realistic chance for national consensus to prevail in “a morally and politically renewed country.”
Referring to Fidesz leader Viktor Orban’s recent trip to Saint Petersburg and meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Martonyi said the visit expressed an endeavour for stable, clear and transparent partnership with Russia.
