As prepared for delivery.

Rector Shattuck,
Deputy Assistant Secretary Fang,
Excellencies,
Ladies & Gentlemen,
Dear Friends of the Hungarian–U.S. Relationship,

I am happy to be here and see a conference room filled with people who share the same passion and the same belief. I am talking about the passion for and belief in an ever more intensive and diverse relationship between Hungary and the United States. And I also mean the common values and ideals binding our two nations closely together. On the occasion of this conference commemorating ninety years of Hungarian–U.S. diplomatic relations, there are many people on both sides of the Atlantic we have to thank for the contributions they have made to this important goal. I would also like to thank the Central European University for serving as host and contributing to the successful organization of this important conference. The CEU, alongside the Hungarian Fulbright Commission, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary tomorrow, embodies a very important segment of the diverse institutional ties that have emerged between our two countries in the wake of Hungary’s transition. Links such as the ones represented by AmCham, ILEA (International Law Enforcement Academy) and the American Corners in several Hungarian cities also play a valuable role as do a large number of Hungarian and American diplomats, consuls, honorary consuls, commercial and military attachés and many others on both ends of this relationship. For our bilateral ties are as multi-faceted and rich as it gets covering virtually every possible field of human interaction.

We have gathered here to celebrate ninety years of Hungarian–U.S. diplomatic relations. This relationship has meant a great deal to millions of people on both sides of the Atlantic. Although there have been bumps along the road, the special bonds between our two countries and the friendship between our two nations have been solid and meaningful throughout a very tumultuous 90-year period. We in Hungary are thankful to the United States for embracing the Hungarian immigrants and refugees, including many leaving Hungary after the 1956 Revolution, who arrived there in several waves over the past century. A huge number of Hungarians were given another chance in America after the storms of history had destroyed their existence and driven them to the shores of that great land. The sizeable and vibrant Hungarian community in the U.S. continues to serve as an invaluable bridge across the Atlantic.

It goes without saying that the relationship between our people and our nations is much older than just those ninety years and also about significantly more than just the diplomatic arena. The names of Mihály Kováts de Fabriczy, one of the founders of the American light cavalry or Ágoston Haraszthy, the “Father of California Viticulture” come to mind from earlier times. The list of well-known Hungarian Americans ranging from Tom Lantos, George Pataki and Edward Teller to George Soros, Charles Simonyi, George Cukor or Tony Curtis is a long one. We in Hungary are proud to know that people of Hungarian descent have made a very significant contribution to the political, economic, cultural and scientific life of the United States and our fellow Hungarians have enhanced the reputation of the Hungarian people as very industrious and innovative.

When talking about the origins of our relationship, I would like to refer to a famous visit made by Lajos Kossuth to the United States in 1851-1852. Kossuth was a strong leader with a clear vision. That vision included a Hungary which was profoundly committed to the idea of individual freedom and democracy and was in strong alliance with the leader of the free world. He went to the United States 160 years ago to promote that vision and make Americans realize the interdependence of Europe and America.

It took us nearly another century and a half to establish such an allied relationship. I feel blessed to have been present at a moving ceremony at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, where my Czech and Polish colleagues and I presented our countries’ NATO accession documents to then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. We Hungarians greatly appreciate the role the United States has played in support of our efforts aimed at reestablishing our place on the happy side of history. Looking forward to the 100th and many other anniversaries, we cherish the close alliance we have forged since our transition some two decades ago and are continuously looking for ways to work together to make the world a better place. Our cooperation in the Western Balkans, Afghanistan or Libya as well as our partnership in sharing our democratic and transition-related experience and promoting the protection of national minorities on a global scale are all rooted in the values and ideals we share and underline our desire to make a positive difference together.

Those shared values were reflected by the Transatlantic Golden Week last June, during which the Lantos Institute was inaugurated and President Reagan’s statue unveiled. During the ongoing Wallenberg Year, we are highlighting values embodied by the late Swedish diplomat, an honorary U.S. citizen and the rescuer of former U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos; values that are an important part of the foundations of our relationship. Based on all these components, we are intent on enhancing the political, security, and economic relationship between our countries to better address the new challenges of the 21st Century. The Cyberspace Conference to be held in Budapest in October is a clear manifestation of this determination.

There is no denying that a turbulent century is behind us. The period starting around the time of the First World War was, indeed, a roller-coaster ride with the occasional hopes for a better world too often shattered by unbelievable evil and tragedies. Hungary was very much in the cross-fire of powerful forces shaping for long decades the geopolitical, and often destroying the actual, landscape. We demonstrated our capability for greatness and even heroism but also made terrible mistakes. The record is necessarily a mixed bag of successes and failures. This is part of our history – we have to come to terms with it: taking inspiration from it wherever possible and drawing the right lessons from the mistakes we made.

Since our transition, we have re-established our place in the community of peaceful democratic nations. We are fully aware of and grateful for the support the United States has provided to this goal. America has served as an inexhaustible source of inspiration and come to represent more than just a geographic entity with a certain number of people living in it.

While we share many of the same values and ideals including our belief in democracy, freedom, human rights or the power of private enterprise, the solutions we are seeking and applying to our respective and often idiosyncratic problems are not and cannot be identical. We have been working shoulder-to-shoulder to address some of the key challenges of this young century, but the way we approach, perceive and assess certain issues occasionally differs. This is just the way of the world. This, however, does not change the fact that both Hungary and the United States belong to the same family of democracies and are trying their best together to make a positive difference in the world.

We appreciate the value of this strategic partnership and in our role as a member of the key institutions of the transatlantic community, we are profoundly conscious of the new opportunities and responsibilities we have been given. It was in this spirit that we went about our first EU Presidency a year ago giving to it, among other things, a clear and much-appreciated Transatlantic focus. With the right approach, the appropriate dose of mutual respect for each other’s views and a frank and friendly dialogue, there are no differences that we cannot overcome. For our fundamental goal is indeed identical: we both want our people to live in a free and democratic country in which they have every opportunity to realize their true human potential.

The issues on the agenda of this conference are very relevant. The four panels will demonstrate what kind of century we have left behind as well as the strength that people-to-people contacts have given to our relationship. It will be exciting to see the development of a diplomatic relationship that culminated in the creation of a full-fledged alliance between Hungary and the United States, seventy-eight years after the purchase of a residence on Massachusetts Avenue when the Roaring Twenties had just started. This era is history for most of us, I am therefore glad to recognize in the Auditorium the daughter and direct descendants of our first Minister to the United States, who are testimonies of the initial years of our relationship.

I wish you a good discussion and all of us the kind of close partnership that our people desire and deserve. We have a lot of work to do together but I hope that by the time we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the establishment of our diplomatic relations in 2022 (perhaps on Capitol Hill), our common track record will include a successful transition in a stable Afghanistan, a newly democratic Middle East and North Africa and the conclusion of the Western Balkans’ Euro-Atlantic integration. I know this is a tall order but I have no doubt that with the right leadership and a strong commitment all this is well within the realm of the doable.

(kormany.hu)