Family-Friendly Leaders Meet – KINCS President Visits Washington
Balázs Hankó, Veronika Varga-Bajusz and Tünde Fűrész travelled to Washington on 7 November as part of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s delegation. While the Prime Minister and his team held talks at the White House, important meetings with family-friendly partner organisations took place to strengthen international cooperation.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his delegation were received in Washington by U.S. President Donald Trump. The meeting concluded successfully, ensuring that Hungarian families can continue to benefit from one of the lowest utility costs in Europe. The Hungarian delegation included Balázs Hankó, Minister for Culture and Innovation; Veronika Varga-Bajusz, State Secretary responsible for higher education, vocational and adult education and youth affairs; and Tünde Fűrész, President of the Mária Kopp Institute for Demography and Families (KINCS).
The visit brought further encouraging results for Hungarian families: among others, under the leadership of Minister Hankó, Hungary and the United States signed an agreement on university and research cooperation, and several important meetings on family policy issues were also held.
The President of our Institute, together with Minister Balázs Hankó and State Secretary Veronika Varga-Bajusz, first met with Ed Corrigan, President of the Conservative Partnership Institute. The discussions focused on the situation in Europe and recent developments in Hungarian family policy, which the delegation was pleased to share. The CPI President highlighted that the organisation is preparing for an upcoming peace summit, which could offer hope for bringing the war to an end as soon as possible – something of great importance to Hungarian families as well.
The Minister and his team also held consultations with Hungarian researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, discussing international opportunities for Hungarian scholars. The meeting was also attended by Levente Székely, Head of the Youth Research Institute at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), who is currently working in Washington on a research fellowship.
Hungarian pro-family politicians also met with Valerie Huber, initiator of the Geneva Consensus Declaration, an international pro-family alliance that is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year. KINCS and the Institute for Women's Health are organizing a joint international conference in Hungary next year with the aim of promoting life- and family-friendly policies and encouraging more countries to join the Geneva Consensus Declaration.
Tünde Fűrész also paid a visit to The Heritage Foundation, organised by the Danube Institute. In addition to key issues of energy, economic and defence policy, the background discussion also touched on cultural questions that underpin Hungarian-American cooperation.
