OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 232, 3 December 1996

HUNGARIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ON NATO, RUSSIA. Hungarian Foreign Minister
Laszlo Kovacs asserted that differences between Russia and the West
regarding NATO expansion are no longer irreconcilable, Hungarian media
reported on 3 December. Kovacs was attending the OSCE summit in Lisbon.
He observed that while Moscow had strongly opposed the expansion of the
alliance at the OSCE's 1994 Budapest summit, this year Russian Prime
Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin devoted only a little time to the issue in
his summit speech, and adopted a tone that was in no way threatening.
Meanwhile, Hungary's Ambassador to NATO, Andras Simonyi, noted that it
is hard to get accustomed to the fact that Russian officials contradict
each other on the issue. He was referring to Russian Defense Minister
Igor Rodionov's recent speech which envisaged the targeting of nuclear
missiles on Eastern Europe if NATO expansion takes place. -- Zsofia
Szilagyi

ROMANIAN GOVERNMENT IN THE OFFING. One month after general elections,
negotiations over the new Romanian government have reached a final
phase, Romanian media reported on 3 December. Designated Prime Minister
Victor Ciorbea is to announce the cabinet later this week, while
Parliament is expected to start hearings on the new ministers today. The
three parties that will make up the government also convened to discuss
the governing program, which is to be perfected by a group of apolitical
experts. In other news, President Emil Constantinescu, at the OSCE
summit in Lisbon, is due today to meet Hungarian Premier Gyula Horn. --
Zsolt Mato

[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Pete Baumgartner