Minister Participated in tax reform conference co-organized with ATR, had meetings with State Department and NSC leaders, IMF Alternate Executive Director, P&G Executive, Israeli Ambassador, Hungarian American Regional Leaders, and talked with think-tank community at Brookings Institut.
Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Mr. Péter Szijjártó visited Washington on Monday and Tuesday, January 15 and 16, 2018. His delegation included Deputy State Secretary for America and Europe Mr. Kristóf Altusz, Deputy State Secretary for Security Policy and Political Director Mr. Levente Benkő, as well as Ambassador László Szabó, MD.
Minister Szijjártó participated in the panel of a conference titled “Tax Reform: Accomplished. A Case Study – Hungary” on Tuesday, January 16 at the Embassy of Hungary, co-organized with the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR). The panel included ATR President Mr. Grover Norquist, Congressman David Schweikert (R-Arizona) and Congressman Adrian Smith (R-Nebraska), both members of the House Ways and Means Committee of the United States Congress.
Minister Szijjártó had a very constructive and forward-looking meeting with Assistant Secretary of State Mr. A. Wess Mitchell, Special Assistant to the President and Senior NSC Director Ms. Fiona Hill, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy Mr. Thomas Goffus at the State Department about current issues of the Hungarian-American bilateral relations.
Minister Péter Szijjártó also met with IMF Alternate Executive Director Mr. Sunil Sabharwal. Director Sabharwal, who was originally an independent business investor of Indian-Hungarian descent, escaped Communist Hungary in 1983 and only returned in 1992 after the Fall of the Iron Curtain to set up the Budapest office of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Minister Szijjártó sat down with the Associate Director for International Business of Procter & Gamble Mr. Sean Mulvaney, and discussed possibilities to further explore mutually advantageous business, trade and investment opportunities in Hungary.
Minister Szijjártó had a friendly meeting with H. E. Mr. Ron Dermer, Ambassador of Israel to the United States, during which they discussed, among others, the recent decision by U. S. President Donald Trump to move the Embassy of the United States to Israel from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem.
Minister Szijjártó also sat down for a background discussion with members of the Washington think-tank community at the Brookings Institute. The prestigious group included Mr. Strobe Talbott, a foreign policy analyst (Yale University), former President of the Brookings Institute between 2002 and 2017, who was Deputy Secretary of State between 1994 and 2001; Mr. Ian Brzezinski, a foreign policy and military affairs expert (Atlantic Council, Brzezinski Group, Scowcroft Center), who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO Policy between 2001 and 2005; Dan Fried, a Distinguished Fellow (Future Europe Initiative, Atlantic Council), who served as Special Assistant and NSC Senior Director for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Ambassador to Poland, and Assistant Secretary of State for Europe between 2005 and 2009; Ms. Paula Dobriansky, a Senior Fellow at Harvard University Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, who served as Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs between 2001 and 2009; as well as Mr. James Kirchick, a fellow at the Brookings Institute, who is also a journalist, author, former foreign correspondent, and columnist.
Minister Péter Szijjártó also continued his dialogue with the Hungarian American Diaspora during a meeting with the regional leaders of the Hungarian American Community about contemporary challenges and opportunities, as well as the participation of Hungarian citizens in the United States in the upcoming Hungarian Parliamentary Election on April 8, 2018.
