Canada will revisit the issue of visa requirements for Hungarians in 2007, Foreign Minister Peter MacKay told Hungarian Foreign Minister Kinga Göncz in New York on Tuesday. Göncz is in the United States to attend the general debate of the United Nations’ General Assembly and has met with many of her counterparts on the sidelines, foreign affairs spokesman Viktor Polgár said. Canada reinstated the visa requirement for Hungarians in 2001 after a sudden rise in the number of people travelling to Canada who then applied for refugee status, most of them Romany.

Meeting with her Afghan counterpart Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Göncz discussed the fact that as of October 1, Hungary will be taking over command of a regional reconstruction contingent in Baghlan, Afghanistan. She also met with Guatemalan FM Gert Rosenthal Koenigsberger who asked Hungary to support Guatemala in its bid to become a non-permanent member of the Security Council in 2007-2008. Colombian FM Maria Consuelo Araujo called for expanded trade between the two countries.

Göncz said that Budapest had closed its embassy in Bogota for financial, not political reasons and plans to have a roving ambassador. On Wednesday, Göncz meets with foreign ministers from signatories to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons treaty and then in a meeting of FMs from the Community of Democracies. She also will have a number of bilateral meetings. In the evening Göncz travels to Washington where she is scheduled to meet US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez. (Mti)