The foreign minister said the government’s main goal was to protect Hungary from the war in Ukraine.
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said Hungary opposes an increase in NATO’s coordination role in weapons deliveries to Ukraine and training Ukrainian soldiers, and will not participate in the planning, implementation or financing of such activities.
Minister Szijjártó told a press conference during a break in a NATO foreign ministers’ council meeting that the government’s main goal was to protect Hungary from the war in Ukraine. As a result, it considered NATO’s earlier unanimous decision very important under which the organisation would not be part of the armed conflict and would do everything to avoid a direct confrontation with Russia, he added. He welcomed the fact that all previous proposals within NATO had respected these red lines and warned that the latest proposal would bring the organisation closer to war. When the proposal was discussed, Hungary asked the other member states to consider that coordination of military support had been done so far without the involvement of the alliance, he said. “Since the majority of member states, I could say 31 of them, agree with having to increase NATO’s coordination role in these two areas … planning work will now get started,” he said. “But we have made it clear that Hungary does not want to and will not participate in this,” Minister Szijjártó said. “Hungary will therefore not participate even in the planning phase,” he added. “We will not participate in the consequent tasks and actions, and we will not provide financial support, either,” he said. “No activity can take place on the territory of Hungary … which results from an increase in NATO’s coordination role in training and weapons deliveries,” he added.
The foreign minister said the government maintained the position that it would not participate in weapons deliveries and would not send soldiers to the war in Ukraine. “No Hungarian soldier will participate in such tasks and the monies of Hungarian taxpayers must not be used for such purposes,” he added. Since Ukraine will not be invited to NATO’s Washington summit, he described the proposal as a substitute action, adding that it was “very dangerous and expensive”. “This is why I made Hungary’s position clear once again,” he said. “We are concerned that such proposals only bring NATO closer to the war than ever before, and we do not agree with increasing NATO’s coordination role either in the training of Ukrainian soldiers or in the delivery of weapons, so Hungary will not participate in it,” he reiterated. He said the strategy that Ukraine would achieve significant success on the battlefield thanks to Western weapons deliveries had clearly failed, and it only resulted in an increase in the number of military equipment in destructive warfare. He added that Hungary was a reliable and important ally, as proven by an increase in military spending to above 2% of GDP last year, which he said had only been achieved by eight member states. Hungary also fares well in spending 20% of its military budget on developments, he added.
Hungary opposes boosting NATO’s coordination role in sending arms to Ukraine and training Ukrainian soldiers.
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said NATO is in a state of war psychosis, which poses a serious risk of conflict escalation.
“The situation on the battlefield clearly shows that the number of casualties and destruction will dramatically increase without a rapid diplomatic settlement,” Minister Szijjártó said after a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council in Brussels. “Operations on the battlefield are clearly intensifying, with ever more serious consequences; all efforts should now focus on establishing peace in order to save lives and prevent further destruction,” he said. It was “bad news”, he added, that his position was “in the minority within NATO”. He quoted a participant in the meeting as saying that “the goal is not to achieve peace but to win the war.” “NATO is more or less characterised by that kind of war psychosis … most spoke today about how to increase weapons shipments to Ukraine,” he added. Minister Szijjártó said putting together such shipments was becoming more and more problematic, partly because many NATO member states “have already contributed nearly all the ammunitions in their reserves.” Hungary opposes boosting NATO’s coordination role in sending arms to Ukraine and training Ukrainian soldiers, he said.
“The challenge posed by global terrorism is becoming ever more serious,” the foreign minister said.
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said NATO must strengthen its counter-terrorism activities with a view to ensuring unimpeded East-West trade, adding that European economic interests depended on smooth trade.
“The challenge posed by global terrorism is becoming ever more serious,” the foreign minister told a press conference after a meeting of the NATO Council of Foreign Ministers in Brussels, adding that terrorism threatened global security and trade, as well as East-West relations. Hungary, he said, did not want a world “divided into blocs again”, and East-West cooperation should be as dense as possible. But connections that are key for Hungary and the Hungarian economy “are seriously threatened by terrorism in the Red Sea”, he added. Referring to Houthi rebels operating off the shores of Yemen, Szijjártó said the terrorist organisation must not be allowed to cause “serious economic problems” for European businesses “after the economic shocks caused by the coronavirus and the war in Ukraine”. Noting that cooperation with the Pacific region was among the topics of discussion at the meeting with representatives from Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, he said Hungary maintained close economic cooperation with countries of the Far East. Investments from the region “contribute significantly to the growth of the Hungarian economy, so for us, the smoothness of East-West trade is a key issue. So we stand for strengthening NATO’s counter-terrorism stance,” the minister concluded.
Earlier, Minister Szijjártó said Hungary is a “proud and reliable” member of the world’s strongest defence alliance. Speaking at a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the foundation of NATO in Brussels, he pledged Hungary’s continued contribution to the security of the Euro-Atlantic community. He said Hungary’s NATO membership “is a coronation of the desire and struggle for freedom of generations of Hungarians.” Twenty-five years ago, in 1999, Hungary was able to re-join “the community of free and sovereign nations of the Euro-Atlantic world, where we always belonged at heart … but forty years of communist oppression kept us physically away from it,” he said. “We are proud of our predecessors, who never gave up hope, not even in the darkest years of communist dictatorship, when the Hungarian people were left completely alone,” the minister said. “Today, we are proud members of the world’s strongest defence alliance. And we are also proud to be a reliable ally, contributing to the security of our community,” Szijjártó said.
Abouthungary, NATO
