Foreign Minister strongly criticised the EU on several issues in Brussels

Hungary’s government will not give up its commitment to peace or its national interests despite the “enormous pressure” concerning arms deliveries to Ukraine and more sanctions, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Brussels on Monday.

The atmosphere in the EU remains combative, Szijjártó told a press conference on the sidelines of a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, according to a ministry statement, adding that unlike the Hungarian government, most member states believed that a military solution to the war in Ukraine was possible.

Szijjártó said this posed the risk of a protracted conflict, but several member states believed that Ukraine was fighting for Europe or “in the name of Europe”.

“We believe that this is not our war; we are in no way responsible for its outbreak, but we’re also paying the price for it . we continue to urge an end to the war and the start of peace talks,” the minister said.

Szijjártó said there was “enormous pressure” to approve another 500 million euro package for the European Peace Facility (EPF) as well as an eleventh sanctions package against Russia.

“But in spite of the pressure, we will not give up our commitment to peace,” Szijjártó said.

“We will not give up protecting the Transcarpathian Hungarian community and despite the pressure, we will not give up the representation of our national interests”.

Szijjártó said that so far 5.7 billion euros from the EPF has been spent on financing weapons deliveries to Ukraine, and though Hungary believed this risked escalation, the government had not blocked the payments. But this time, he added, the government had made it clear that it will oppose further payments until Ukraine removes Hungary’s OTP Bank from its list of “international sponsors of war”.

“The accusations against OTP are false and are not based on any sort of facts, therefore we demand that the Ukrainians remove OTP from the list of international sponsors of war,” Szijjártó said.