Hungarian FM: UN should spend less on bureaucracy

The United Nations should spend less on bureaucracy and spend more on the global fight against terrorism which Hungary greatly contributes to, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in New York on Wednesday.

The ministry cited Szijjártó telling a meeting to support victims of terrorism under the arrangements of the United Nations General Assembly session that “we are now faced with the most serious threat of terror globally ever” despite all efforts, and 6,700 lives were lost last year as a consequence of terrorist attacks.

Terrorism creates a vicious circle with illegal migration, given the fact that terrorism is one of the major root causes for migration and one of the consequences as well, he said.

“As a consequence of terrorism, many people have to flee, and on the other hand, terrorists can hide in the migratory waves,” he added.

Europe is highly exposed to the phenomenon of illegal migration, migrants have created parallel societies in multiple places of the EU, and “the perception that we could successfully integrate these people proved to be a failure”, he said.

“So it’s an utmost priority for us to prevent terrorism from spreading and to eliminate the terrorist organizations as quickly as it is possible,” he added.

Szijjártó said this will only be possible if the efforts are being based on a global cooperation and the UN must take a lead.

He said it was unacceptable that only 3 percent of the budget of UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) is being issued by the regular budget of the UN.

“Maybe we should spend less on bureaucracy here and spend a little bit more on preventing terrorism and supporting the victims of terrorism,” he added.

The second biggest centre of UNOCT has been set up in Budapest and “we are continuously expanding and increasing its capacities”, he said.

Szijjártó also said that there was a growing number of attacks against Christian communities all over the world.

“I am proudly representing a country which has a more than thousand-year Christian statehood, and therefore, we are pretty concerned about these targeted attacks against the Christian communities,” he said.

Hungary gives all of its support to persecuted Christians, with more than 50 million dollars spent so far on a programme called Hungary Helps which helps them to remain where their communities had been staying, he added.

Source: MTI