Remarks With Foreign Minister Ferenc Somogyi of Hungary

HUNGARIAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS FERENC SOMOGYI: (In Hungarian)  Good afternoon, thank you for your interest. Since we do not have too much time, I'd like to say very briefly that the Deputy Secretary of State is visiting Hungary in the framework of a long European tour, so that the new administration may acquire even more detailed knowledge about the position on issues considered mutually important in all the visited countries, and to share with us many details of the American position on the same issues.  In that regard, it might even be redundant for me to enumerate the agenda, as you know very well that it had to include transatlantic relations, where Hungary continues to be committed to their development and to making them even more successful; the important questions that deal with Ukraine, Afghanistan, the West Balkan and further away, Africa, and I could go on.  And naturally, as is customary, a couple of economic questions, the situation of the export of Hungarian food, and the situation of the visa issue were also on the agenda.  Obviously, the primary function of today's meeting was an exchange of ideas and we could not expect decisions to be made in this forum.  But I think that, at least from my point of view, this conversation was a very useful step of the preparation preceding my visit in Washington, to start on the day after tomorrow, where, in addition to the Secretary of State, I'll have the opportunity to talk about these issues and other mutually important questions with a number of important American leaders.

DEPUTY SECRETARY ZOELLICK: I would like to start by thanking the Foreign Minister for receiving me today and my colleagues who have come with me.  I look forward to seeing the Prime Minister right after this session.  As the Minister said, the primary purpose of this visit was for me to have an opportunity to come and visit a number of capitals throughout Europe and to hear directly some of the priorities and major issues of concern for our NATO allies.  The President and Secretary of State Rice started out the second term by coming to Europe in view of our close partnership and to outline some of the issues on the Secretary's agenda.  And the Secretary and I agreed that I would visit the countries that they did not have a chance to visit so far, so that we could hear directly in individual capitals about their priorities.  The minister, of course, will be visiting Washington in a matter of days himself so I appreciate his taking the time to go over these subjects with me today.  I think if there is anyway that I would emphasize the theme that governed the number of topics that the minister outlined is that:  together I think there are many ways that we can explore hearing of Hungary's experience, of its process of democratic transition, its economic reform process, its entering NATO and the EU.  And there is a great deal that Hungary can share with others, whether it be those in the Ukraine or those in the Middle East and others that might benefit from this democratic experience.  So we covered those topics as well as a number of others.  Thank you.

QUESTION:  (MTI - Hungarian News Agency) Is it true that President Bush is planning on coming to visit here in Hungary this year?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ZOELLICK:  Well, one thing I learned after a number of years working for Presidents is to not presume their travel schedule.  But we are just very pleased that he had a good first visit in his second term in Europe. And that combined with the Secretary's trip and my trip, I think, are a way of emphasizing that as we start this second term the best way to build transatlantic relations is by sharing our respective agendas for the next coming years.  So the President tried to do that by talking about the process with Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East Peace process as well as issues dealing with Ukraine and the Balkans.  Then again what I wanted to do today was to take a little bit more time and get the Hungarian perspective on these topics, working out this particular experience that we can benefit from.

QUESTION:   (David Chance, Reuters) About Boeing-Airbus, is there any chance at all and what are the necessary preconditions for a deal surrounding the issues so far?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ZOELLICK:   Well on this trip I'm acting in the capacity of our Foreign Ministry, not in a foreign trade capacity.  But I think you know in the middle of January the United States and the European Commission set out a framework for trying to move ahead on this dispute because we both filed papers in the WTO.  The United States made it clear that the January 11 document shared the view that the goal would be to try to eliminate subsidies as defined by the WTO.  That clearly includes launch aid.  In the aftermath of that statement some of the officials from Airbus said they wanted to move ahead with launch aid.   But at least from what we've been able to ascertain, there continues to be difference of view in quarters of Europe about the willingness to eliminate launch aid, which would be the way to fulfill that January 11 agreement.  Subsequent to that there was a letter that Commissioner Mandelson sent me in, I think around February, that proposed another structure which would focus on the launch aid and some of the benefits that Boeing has had and the focus on infrastructure but delays some of the work on R & D and procurement.  And we were willing to work with that framework as well.  But from my last conversation with Commissioner Mandelson I do not see that as probably reaching fulfillment for the time that we set forth. The United States has said that we would be willing to maintain the standstill that we had in the January 11th agreement and so I guess that it will be up to Europe to decide what it wants to do.

QUESTION:  (Attila Poth, Inforadio) I wanted to ask you about what Mr. Bush said about visas and Central Europe.

DEPUTY SECRETARY ZOELLICK:  The minister and I discussed it and I'm glad that you mentioned it because we very much benefit from the Hungarians that have come and visited the United States and studied there.  But in the aftermath of September 11, our Congress passed a series of requirements for all countries, not just Hungary, that have to be met in terms of maintaining the visa waiver program.  These are obviously tied to some countries that currently have visa waiver but others as well.  And so we and our consular service established a working group with Hungary to try to look at the criteria, the statutory criteria, and try to see how we can best work together to try to meet those.  These are established by our Congress so it's not something we can really negotiate, but we certainly try to work with our close partners like Hungary to try to expedite the process of meeting those standards.

QUESTION:  (Andras Desi, Nepszabadsag) You mentioned the transatlantic relationship.  What would be the role for Hungary?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ZOELLICK:  That's a very good question.  I'm glad you asked it because we started out when I recalled with the Minister that I visited Hungary in 1989 and 1990 and at a time when Hungary played a very instrumental role in ending the Cold War and in creating a Europe whole and free.  And while Hungary is a small country it is one that I think like its neighbors can share that experience in a different context.  Whether it may be a country like Ukraine that would like to deepen its relationship with the EU and NATO, Hungary has gone through the experience of joining both of those.  It has perspective to share.  We talked about the interest in Hungary of bringing a foundation, dealing with the experience of democracy, which could be very valuable to many countries in the Middle East, because just as in 1989 we saw the winds of change, we can see the winds of change in the broader Middle East with elections in Afghanistan, in Iraq and in the Palestinian territories, in the actions in Lebanon, and so historic forces don't follow a straight line.  One can't presume where these will go.  But we consider Hungary to be a very good partner.  One that has benefited from all the insights we have gained.  And one of the reasons I wanted to come here early in the term was to be able to have a particular discussion and to hear from our Hungarian colleagues about some of the areas that they think the most important, and obviously one of those is the work we need to do together in the Balkans this year.

Thank you.