Janos Martonyi

Gms: MTI.Hu, Budapest November 11 2010

’It would be highly important that Sudan’s internal conflicts be settled as soon as possible’, Hungarian Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi told his Sudanese counterpart Ali Karti in Budapest on Thursday

The consultation was part of Hungary’s preparations for EU presidency during the first half of 2011, the ministry told MTI in a statement.

The ministers surveyed bilateral relations and the EU’s possible contributions to settling conflicts in Africa.

The EU and Hungary seek to give the Sudanese government every possible assistance so that the early January referendum on South Sudan’s independence be carried out lawfully and transparently.

The Hungarian minister pointed out that settling the Sudanese conflicts would be of key importance for the future of Africa, and for international peace and security.

Martonyi confirmed that he would attend the third EU-Africa summit meeting in Tripoli later this month. The conference is scheduled to approve the second action plan for Europe-Africa cooperation. Hungary as EU president will actively participate in implementing the plan, he said.

Martonyi expressed thanks to the Sudanese government for its efforts to free the Hungarian peacekeeper who had been kidnapped in Darfur province in early October.

Istvan Papp, who was participating in UN operations to demobilise child soldiers in the province, was taken hostage by gunmen in his home in El Fasher on October 7.

Ali Karti promised that the Sudanese government would continue to make every possible effort to settle the hostage affair in a reassuring way as soon as possible