Imre Szekeres on American visit
Szöveg: honvedelem.hu | 2009. március 11. 11:57Hungarian Defence Minister Imre Szekeres is currently visiting the United States Of America. His Tuesday evening speech delivered in the Hungarian Embassy in Washington D.C. can be read here.
Festive address for the reception held on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of NATO accession of the Republic of Hungary
Washington D.C.
March 10, 2009.
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:
At this festive event, allow me to greet you with the words of Lajos Kossuth, one of the greatest Hungarian patriots and leader of the Hungarian Revolution in 1848, who is also known in the United States: “Power is granted by unity, but discord will have even the strongest countries disintegrate".
March is the most beautiful month for Hungarians not just because of the coming Spring. Five days from now, we will celebrate at home the 161st anniversary of the Revolution and Freedom Fight of 1848-49. And two days from now, an historical event that took place ten years ago will be celebrated, namely that in the town of Independence, by signing the accession documents, Hungary became a full member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization along with the Czech Republic and Poland.
It happened exactly a decade ago that three countries of Central Europe attained membership of the already 60 year old NATO, an alliance determining the world’s security. An alliance which received the first three countries of the region exactly 10 years after the historical political changes that had occurred in 1989. Those three musketeers who had done so much during their history to help Europe win its freedom. And a few weeks from now, Croatia and Albania are also set to join the alliance, expanding the number of NATO member states to twenty-eight.
In 1999, by the accession of the three Central European countries, we managed to eliminate Europe’s political division. Just as all Hungarians, I am very proud that Hungary, one of those countries at the forefront of democratic changes, could be among the first ones to join the North Atlantic Alliance. A nation which was the first to reach political consensus about democratic transformation and the transition to democracy and market economy in 1989.
Hungary wishes to honestly face her past and her history. Just as we are also willing to stand behind our decisions. We did not shift from one side of the barricade to the other one but demolished that barricade together with forces catalyzing the political changes by extending a friendly hand above the barrier. Exactly the same event took place in the region’s countries with respect to their NATO accession.
A Hungarian left-wing politician, Gyula Horn, later to become Prime Minister, was the first to raise the possibility of our country’s NATO membership. At that time, this seemed to be a futuristic idea for many. However, after we said an honest, civilized and humane farewell to the Soviet soldiers, we extended a friendly hand to NATO and after a few years, we could become partners. Afterwards, we agreed on the conditions and in a fair competition, the better performers, who joined earlier, were followed by those who acceded a few years later to an alliance which has still open doors. And we strongly hope that in a mere month, Croatia and Albania will also pass the threshold of that door and afterwards – in fact very soon, as we may hope – Macedonia could also step through that threshold: a country that has come to satisfy NATO requirements by now.
Dear Guests:
Celebrations are always warm and intimate. Especially if we commemorate our uplifting moments. Nevertheless we cannot utterly disregard that a serious crisis has befallen the world. In such events, the preservation of safety becomes a key issue, since a global financial and economic crisis usually brings about a significant deterioration of our sense of security, which cannot be simply dealt with the question whether we should be afraid of a war or not. On the contrary, this deterioration of our sense of security has occurred in an era when the likelihood of a traditional military conflict is extremely low.
Preservation of our achievements attained during the last two decades is our responsibility, including my own, personal responsibility. We will preserve security and improve cooperation.
This is because problems are not separate American, Hungarian, Latvian, Ukrainian or Russian, German, French issues anymore, but global questions even if they logically bring about a different level of suffering in Budapest, Berlin, Washington, London or even Beijing.
In order to preserve and widen security and increase efficiency in the military field, we will need a more efficient cooperation. This is why, as a politician, I am convinced that a stronger NATO is needed if we want a greater degree of security. And a stronger NATO requires a novel type of thinking.
Many member states, such as Hungary have already transformed their defense and foreign policy in order to correspond to the new types of challenges. Our recently adopted National Military Strategy has a clear wording: the territory of our country is not threatened by a traditional military conflict. However, we have to work actively for security and its enhancement even far away from our national borders.
As regards this goal, we have plenty of good examples, especially if the military cooperation between the United States and Hungary is considered. Even before our nation’s NATO accession, the two countries had formed an extremely close military cooperation. Starting from the mid-nineties, Hungary provided logistical support to the American defense forces for their peacemaking mission in Bosnia, which was repeated numerous times in the years after accession, not only with regard to Bosnia. In the peacekeeping missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, direct military cooperation between two allied member states was created several thousand miles from our national borders.
A few weeks ago, I was personally present in Szolnok at the festive farewell ceremony organized for American and Hungarian soldiers assigned to Afghanistan.
Those are the ones who traveled to the Asian country as members of a joint operational liaison team. It was really good to see this team. I heard from their commanders that in the operational area, they had indeed become a single organization exhibiting smooth cooperation. I think that after a while, the whole NATO alliance should follow this example and become a uniform, unified, cooperative team.
We have also launched an exemplary cooperation project, again with American help. We launched an initiative with a significance regarding the Alliance’s future prospects when we received in Pápa the C-17 NATO airlift program involving soldiers from 12 nations. This capacity will represent a tremendous advance using only a little amount of money, not just for participating countries but the whole alliance, as well. During my current stay in the US, I will be also visiting the Boeing factory where the manufacturing of first C-17 airlift aircraft intended for Pápa is already underway.
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:
As a second foreigner in the history of the United States of America, Lajos Kossuth was officially received and could address an open session of the House of Representatives in Congress. At that event, Kossuth said the following words:
“On behalf of myself and my country, I am grateful to the House of Representatives of the United States for the honor expressed in a warm welcome."
In a different era and on a different occasion, I would also like to thank the United States and the American people for supporting helping our country’s NATO accession, your cooperation and friendship.
Thank you for your kind attention!
