Hungarian Review, 1977 (23. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1977-01-01 / 1. szám

A peaceful and happy New Year! We are not the only ones to convey our good wishes for the New Year with these words. Whatever the social, economic and political system, the degree of development and the geographical position of their country, the vast majority of people voice their wishes in these terms at the turn of the year. Our readers might expect us to answer the question of how Hungary has contributed and tries to contribute to the realization of the wishes of mankind. On these pages we regularly report on how the creative and productive work in our country helps to overcome the difficulties and make life easier and more pleasant here, and we illustrate how Hungarians in industry, agri­culture, culture and science are contributing—with the help of the contrib­utions of other peoples and countries—to world progress. And having entered the sphere of international relations, we are still on the san’’ tack because we maintain that peace and prosperity can only be secured lor one people if it is secured for everyone else as well. The balance of the last year- -and even of the last years—has been favour­able. Over three decades have passed since the conclusion of the Second World War, a full decade longer than the period of peace between the two world wars. Although we had to survive the cold war era, the idea of peaceful co­existence has finally made a successful breakthrough, and the factors that strengthen active coexistence and cooperation are becoming more influential. True, the situation in the Middle East has not been sorted out and has in fact become more serious owing to the bloodshed in Lebanon, nor has the white minority rule ended in the southern part of Africa. In Chile the reign of terror by the military putschists is still raging. Nonetheless, political detente is making its effects felt even beyond Europe. We know that political detente is yet to be supplemented by military detente, together with the establishment of an entire system of troops' and arms’ reduction and disarmament measures; by a world treaty that would put the seal on giving up the use of force, and the holding of a world conference on disarmament. The initiatives for these goals received a lively response at the session of the UN General Assembly which closed in December. The Hungarian Foreign Minister was able to give his emphatic support to effectuating these measures; he was justified in stating that “The Government of the Hungarian People’s Republic is taking an active part in the consolidation of peace and security, in intensifying cooperation among peoples and nations, and in all the collec­tive efforts for strengthening detente.’’ Hungarian society as a whole, including people with different views on other topics, stands united in support of this foreign policy as was clearly demonstrated by the congress of the Patriotic People’s Front this past year. Practical implementation of this support is reflected in the fact that since Helsinki the head of the Hungarian Government, Hungarian deputy prime ministers, and the Foreign Minister had talks with leading personalities of Western European and North American Governments. Special mention should be made of the large number of contacts at prime-ministerial or mi­nisterial level with the developing countries, and the recent visit to four Latin- American countries by the Hungarian Head of State. Understandably, socialist Hungary is drawing close ties with the countries of similar social and economic systems in the first place. This is evident from the 846 different accords, agreements and treaties concluded with them. But, wanting to do still more for peace and cooperation, Hungary is developing her relations with all the different parts of the world. This is demonstrated by the 286 agreements concluded in ten years with the developed capitalist countries on the basis of equality and mutual advantages, and the 328 agree­ments signed with developing countries, most of them on the basis of preferen­tial treatment. The prestige Hungary enjoys on the part of the developing countries is reflected in the choice of the Hungarian capital as the venue of the International Conference on Development this past autumn, where, under the aegis of the World Council of Peace, state and social representatives from about a hundred countries and representatives of various United Nations organizations came together. The link between peace and development, peace and progress, is today clearer than it has ever been before. After World War II, Hungary, a country which had until then been regarded as underdeveloped, was able (having chosen the road of socialism) to avail herself of the opportunities for peaceful development. Today the efforts of each of the developing countries could be helped by the spread of detente, the checking of the monopolies interested in armaments and in supra-national expansion, and by the rational use of funds released by reducing military budgets, which now amount to almost 1,000 million dollars a day. The reduction of political military and economic tension could at the same time open a new and lasting era of peaceful and happy new years for all mankind.

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