Government: peace in Ukraine needs the US contribution

The circumstances for peace are not going to improve in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said in an interview with CNN posted on his Facebok page on Friday.

Asked about signs of diminishing global support for Ukraine, Szijjártó said the “Ukraine fatigue in European national parliaments and in the US is proof that the circumstances for peace are not going to improve”. “This is a major debate in Europe, between us and those that don’t think that peace should come now, saying that the situation should improve on the battlefield day by day,” he said. “But this is not the case,” he added.

The goal should be to save lives, he said. “Then get Ukrainians and Russians … negotiate a peace deal,” he added. “This is not going to take place without the United States,” Szijjártó said. He said the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all countries in the world must be respected. “We have never recognised the occupation of any territory of Ukraine,” he added.

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Here is the whole interview:

UNGA ‘failed as opportunity to bring Ukraine peace closer’

The United Nations General Assembly session held in New York this week has failed as an opportunity to bring the peace in Ukraine closer, as large and strong countries decided it was not the time to start talks, the Hungarian foreign minister, said in New York on Friday. The ministry cited Peter Szijjártó as saying that the UN had originally been set up as a neutral forum for dialogue between warring parties.

Regarding an afternoon meeting of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, Szijjártó warned that in the war in Ukraine a nuclear power confronted a country supported by other nuclear powers. The warring parties had lately referred to their nuclear capabilities “openly, shamelessly”, and deployed arms containing depleted uranium, he said.

The minister said that in times like these, it was even more important that countries yet to join the treaty should do so, to ensure that no country would conduct nuclear tests, and lamented that the US and China were not among the signatories.

Later on Friday, Szijjártó is slated to speak at the meeting on the fight against tuberculosis, and said the sickness was a renewed challenge to Europe and the rest of the world.

Developing countries still see some 1.5 million deaths due to tuberculosis, he said. The efforts and resources consumed by the coronavirus pandemic also harmed systemic prevention, the foreign minister added.

As a result, the number of infections started to grow in Europe for the first time in 20 years, with the largest number of cases and steepest growth reported from Ukraine, he said.

In Hungary, the number of TB cases grew by 35 percent in annual comparison by 2022, he said.

Szijjártó said that growing case numbers were one more reason to put a swift end to the war in Ukraine.

Hungary, which has signed an agreement with the WHO to provide health care for refugees when necessary, is using various tests to comply with that agreement, he said.

Szijjártó also called on the “liberal mainstream” to “stop inspiring further waves of migration” as they pose health as well as security risks.

Supporting poorest countries ‘best way to ensure peace’

The best way to ensure peace and security is to provide economic assistance to the least developed countries, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said at the United Nations General Assembly session currently under way in New York.

According to a statement from the foreign ministry, Szijjártó said better living conditions in those countries helped reduce the risk of armed conflicts and further migratory waves. The Hungarian government has launched a country-specific development programme to assist those countries in job creation, as well as improving education and living conditions in general. Fighting poverty, providing new jobs, promoting sustainable security and helping people prosper in their homelands will all contribute to restoring peace and security, the ministry quoted Szijjarto as saying.

The Doha Programme of Action opens a new chapter in cooperation based on solidarity, fairness and mutual respect, Szijjártó said. Development programmes should be based on mutual respect without donor countries interfering with the internal affairs of receipients, he insisted.

Since 2010, the Hungarian government has raised Hungary’s official direct assistance by 247 percent, from an annual 114 million dollars to 400 million, or from 0.1 percent of GDP to 0.3 percent, Szijjártó said. He also noted that Hungary was offering over 200 higher education scholarships to students from the least developed countries. This year, the government has already spent tens of millions of dollars to improve health services in such countries as Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Laos, and Uganda, he said. Hungarian companies are also active in water management, food, agricultural and IT projects, he added.