"The Washington State Department's communiqué concerning your trip to America stressed Hungary's stabilizing role in the region. Why has Hungary grown so much in the eyes of American diplomacy?"

"Politically, Hungary is among the most stable countries in the area, for as a result of the parliamentary elections, the ruling party alliance reached a two-thirds majority. This political stability offers the opportunity of the Hungarian economy to become stronger. Evidently, all this has an effect on the area as a whole, on Central and South-Eastern Europe. But let us not forget that American interest is primarily directed towards the Western Balkans, for the creation of a "united and free Europe" has not yet been concluded in that area. From this aspect, the role of Hungary has definitely increased, as the political and economic stability radiates on the whole area, primarily in a southern direction. And from this point of view, it is extremely important that in the first half of next year, the Presidency of the Council of the European Union will be led by Hungary, and Washington has great expectations in this regard."

"In what way has Hungary's diplomatic scope of movement increased by the fact that Hungary's national interests in the area coincide with the interests of the greatest superpower?"

"It is undoubtedly true that they coincide. The United States of America has an interest in having political and economic stability there, and in the Western Balkans joining, those Euroatlantic organisations that we wanted to join for so many years as soon as possible. Hungary supports this aim in every possible way. We very much hope that Croatia will be able to sign the treaty of accession during our presidency. But we also hope that the enlargement process does not stop with Croatia's integration, we would like the reunification of Europe to continue."

"The United States shows an interest in not only South-Eastern Europe, but also the whole Central European region. Its most important ally in the region is perhaps Poland. Hungary intends to develop very close relations with Warsaw. Would this mean the appearance of a new strategy here, in the middle of Europe?"

"I don't think so. The essence of it is that we wish to preserve cooperation between the Visegrád Group. We feel that the past two decades have proved that there is a need for what the Visegrád Four represent. It is primarily the Central European countries that need it, but so does Europe. And there is no doubt that the reinforced Polish-Hungarian alliance and friendship should be at the centre of the Visegrád Group. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's first official visit abroad, which was to Warsaw, expressed this strategic intention. At the same time, we would like to extend our Central European policy and pay more attention to the South: we're not just talking about Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Romania, but also about the other states in this region, which are very close to us historically, but we have not really paid too much attention to in the last few years. The rise of South-Eastern Europe is very important to us, because only then will Hungary really be able to leave the periphery. Central European politics have an Eastern and Western direction. During the Hungarian Presidency, we will organise the summit conference entitled Eastern Partnership, which will symbolise the European Union's interest in Eastern Europe. The Western direction means, among others, the Danube-strategy, which connects Austria and Bavaria to the region. The Danube-strategy gives Central European politics an extremely efficient dimension."

"You mentioned the success of the cooperation between the Visegrád Four. How have the recent differences of opinion between Hungary and Slovakia made common thinking more difficult? The Czech Republic, for example, took a very firm stand by Slovakia."

"It's hard to say how successful the Visegrád Group is at the moment. If we look back, we can see that the quality of cooperation has never been constant. It has always greatly depended on what the atmosphere was like in Bratislava or Prague. Now I feel that the coming months, and hopefully even the coming years, will have a positive atmosphere. We know that there will be a centrist-right government in both Prague and Bratislava. This doesn't mean that all the controversial issues will automatically be solved, but the atmosphere will definitely be more positive. The style, the language, the choice of words will definitely be more subtle and sophisticated. All this will give a new impetus, a kind of dynamism to the activities of the Visegrád Four. We shall definitely be working on this. Of course, one of its important elements is the way Hungarian-Slovakian relations develop in the coming weeks and months. As soon as the new Slovakian government is formed, we wish to discuss all controversial and non-controversial issues. Personally, I'm quite optimistic."

"The new centrist-right Slovakian cabinet's programme does not include the law on minorities, and it seems that it deals only superficially with the amendments of the current language law."

"We cannot and do not wish to interfere with the wording of the Slovakian government programme. Our task is to determine the situation and see in which areas there is a difference of opinion. And it is true that the language law is such an issue. We know very well that the new Slovakian government will have to make certain gestures. I think we should not consider the text of the government's programme as a starting point. What we do have to consider important are the goals that we want to reach."

"Central Europe has increased in value not only in the eyes of the United States but also in those of Russia. Nowadays, the tone that Moscow uses with Warsaw is very different from what it was earlier. There used to be serious conflicts between the two countries. Is it possible that the two superpowers are now competing for the area?"

"Personally, I see other tendencies. I feel that the situation in general is improving, within the global system. One of the main elements is the significant improvement of American-Russian relations. I must add that I feel there is a parallel - acknowledging, of course, the immense difference in size - between American and Hungarian aims. Washington wants to develop relations with Moscow that are based on transparency, reliability and mutual understanding and trust. This is extremely important, as these two countries still have such a huge amount of nuclear missiles - with which they could destroy the world in a matter of a few minutes- as they had twenty-five or thirty years ago. It's another thing that we speak less about this issue nowadays, as the danger has decreased considerably. It is in our interest that the energy supply be undisturbed and that Hungarian-Russian relations be clear and reliable. I don't think we need to fear any of the risks mentioned earlier regarding Russian relations."

"During your visit to the United States, you stressed Hungary's commitment to the Atlantic military system (NATO) on several occasions. This was well received on the American side, especially Hungary's military presence in Afghanistan, and the increase in number of our military contingent. However, other NATO-member countries are thinking of withdrawing their troops. Does this cause some sort of division within NATO?"

"The President of the United States himself has signalled that from the second half of 2011, the number of American troops can gradually be reduced. So we're not saying that we want to stay there at all costs, what we're saying is that it is in the basic interest of the organisation that if we went there together, then we should also leave together, and at the same time, we should seek a political solution to the problem. In the interview I gave on American television, I said that I did not think winning this war with military methods was very probable. At the same time, I believe that the Western world simply cannot afford to lose this war, militarily speaking. Consequently, there is no other solution but the political one. This means conflict management in a larger area, i.e. Pakistan will have to be included, and very probably India and other powers as well. I am convinced that this is the only solution. When the political solution has been found, Hungary will be more than happy to withdraw from Afghanistan."

"Will this agenda be discussed at the autumn NATO summit held in Lisbon?"

"The aim of the Lisbon NATO summit is to develop NATO's new strategic concept. This will be an important decision from the point of view of Hungary's national interests, too. For us, the most important aspect continues to be the protection of our territory. The fifth article of the Washington treaty, which defines the concept of collective defence - in other words, if one member state is attacked, all its allies consider this as an aggression against their own territories - guarantees this. And this must be reinforced. What we're talking about now are the new types of attacks, which do not take place in the traditional way, for example, if a country's computer system is paralysed, to what extent does this belong to the concept of collective defence. At the same time there are attacks that are very hard to localize, for example international terrorism. So we can talk about global threats. The new strategic concept must also be able to deal with these new dangers which cannot be localized to a certain territory."