Hungary-US ties better than appearances, says the head of parliament’s foreign affairs committee

Washington, DC (MTI) – Hungarian-US relations are better than appearances may suggest, the head of parliament’s foreign affairs committee said on Tuesday.

This is partly due to the value of boosting bilateral security cooperation in an increasingly unstable world, Zsolt Nemeth said after talks in Washington with his US counterpart Ed Royce and other congressmen. As head of the Hungarian delegation Nemeth and Socialist lawmaker Marta Demeter attended a conference of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

Nemeth told MTI by phone that disputed issues between the two countries have not vanished but priorities have shifted. He highlighted terrorism, migration and heightened global insecurity resulting from Russia’s actions in Ukraine and Syria among the main reasons.

“Hungary and the US speak the same language” when it comes to security cooperation, he said.

Nemeth said it was a positive development that NATO has again found its raison d’etre, and accordingly Hungary can develop new forms of cooperation with the organisation. He cited the European Reassurance Initiative, which applies to European frontline countries and involves major developments and deployments. He said that further positive developments included inviting Montenegro to the organisation and NATO taking a role in the Middle East, where Hungary is present with 120 soldiers in Iraq.