Former U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Robert Palladino Receives Hungarian State Honor

Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, presented Robert Palladino, former chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Budapest, with a state honor on Tuesday in Washington for his work in developing bilateral relations.

The minister presented Robert Palladino, former chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Budapest, with the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary. In his speech, he emphasized that bilateral relations had entered a new golden age with President Donald Trump’s inauguration last year, however, this could not have begun so smoothly without the former temporary head of the diplomatic mission, who did a great deal to improve cooperation from the very beginning.

He emphasized that a new world order is emerging today, in which nothing will be the same as it was before, and the U.S. president is a key player in this.

“The former elements of the old global order—international organizations, associations, norms—are losing their significance, as they have fundamentally failed over the past decade. Instead, international cooperation will be based on intergovernmental cooperation, personal relationships, and friendships,” he said.

“What a fantastic coincidence that the emergence of this new world order coincides with the beginning of a completely new golden age in Hungarian-American relations. Obviously, this is not mere luck. We have worked strategically to build the best possible relationships with the world’s strong leaders. When we talk about the president and the prime minister, we are talking about two political leaders who have been subjected to serious attacks, but who have remained loyal to each other despite this. They never betrayed each other, they were always loyal,” he continued.

“And this loyalty is the best foundation on which to build our relations in a new golden age. However, in order to build on this excellent foundation, we also need builders who have already successfully begun this work, and if I had to name one of the most important, most successful, and most necessary builders of this process, it would be Ambassador Palladino, who brought fresh air from Washington to Budapest,”  he added.

Péter Szijjártó said that when Robert Palladino arrived in Hungary, mutual respect returned to relations, and sincere friendship replaced hostility.

During your service in Budapest, we restarted intergovernmental cooperation. We saw the lifting of political sanctions, we returned to the ESTA system, and a record number of American companies invested in Hungary. We also made nuclear energy one of the most strategic areas of our cooperation, which was not the case before,”

he said.

He also expressed his appreciation for the diplomat’s important role in preparing for the foreign ministerial meetings and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s successful visit to the U.S. last year.

Finally, he thanked Robert Palladino, pointing out that none of this would have been possible without him.

“This honor is about both the past and the future. In terms of the past, it is recognition of everything he has done, and in terms of the future, it is an expression of our expectation that he will continue this work,” he said.

Via MTI; Featured image: Facebook/Péter Szijjártó

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