PM Advisor: New US Ambassador To Hungary Could Take Up Post In Spring
- 22 Jan 2018 7:59 AM
The new United States ambassador to Hungary could arrive in Budapest by late spring or early summer, the prime minister’s chief advisor for American affairs told news portal hirado.hu over the weekend. It is hard to predict exactly when the US Senate will approve the appointment of the ambassadorial candidate, who will first have to face a confirmation hearing, Jenő Megyesy said in an interview marking the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
According to press reports, the president is set to nominate David Cornstein to serve as the next ambassador to Hungary.
Megyesy told hirado.hu that this would mean that the US ambassador would again be a political appointee, just as in the past 20 years. He said it would “not necessarily be a problem” if the ambassador was not a career diplomat, arguing that a political appointee has an easier time “staying independent from the system” as they tend to be closer to the president. “I expect that the arrival of the new ambassador will continue to move things in a positive direction and any disagreements that arise will be kept out of the foreground,” Megyesy said.
He was unable to say when Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was expected to visit Washington. Megyesy said bilateral meetings were more important when the two sides have an important subject or disagreement to discuss, adding that right now this was not the case in US-Hungary relations.
Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.
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