STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK U.S. Thanks Hungary for Hosting Landmark NATO Meeting BUDAPEST, May 30, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell thanked Hungary on Wednesday for hosting a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, the first such gathering to be held in an ex-communist country. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose country has been a NATO member for two years, meanwhile welcomed US commitment to helping the transition of Europe's ex-communist bloc and the war-scarred Balkan region. Powell thanked Orban for hosting the meeting of the North Atlantic Council, NATO's decision-making body comprising the foreign ministers of the 19 Alliance countries. Hungary joined the Alliance in March 1999 along with Poland and the Czech Republic. The meeting was dominated by the continuing crisis in Macedonia, but also discussed U.S. plans for a missile defense system, which was received cautiously by Washington's NATO allies. Powell also pledged that the new U.S. administration would continue to strengthen relations with Hungary, a frontrunner for joining the EU. "Our bilateral relations are very very strong and I can assure you that under the Bush administration that relationship will grow deeper and stronger," he said. Orban said: "We are extremely happy to note than in strategic issues there is full common understanding between us." In particular he noted Washington's shared vision of "the relationship between the United States of America and a Europe in the process of unification" and "the future of the central european and Balkan region." "We have every hope that we are going to maintain an excellent relationship with the new U.S. administration," Orban said. ((c) 2001 Agence France Presse) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
