Will Hungary bring peace to Ukraine with Türkiye?

Hungary and Türkiye are strengthening cooperation to make sure that “peace returns to the agenda of international organisations”, the foreign minister said in Washington, DC on Wednesday.

According to a ministry statement, Péter Szijjártó told the NATO summit that Hungary and Türkiye “have had highest-level talks within the framework of the peace mission launched after [Hungary] took over the European presidency.”

He said Türkiye was the only country whose efforts to mediate between Ukraine and Russia had been successful, and the resulting agreement on grain helped stave off a food-supply crisis in several places around the world.

“In the coming period we’ll coordinate our work even more with Türkiye … to make sure that peace at least will be included on the agenda of international organisations,” he said.

He called it “problematic” that international organisations, including the NATO summit, were “abuzz with discussions” on war. “Peace as an expression has become as good as illegitimate in those organisations.”

Those bringing up peace, he said, had been stigmatised and “labelled everything from Putin’s puppet to a Trojan horse, Russian agent and a propagandist of the Kremlin.”

Budapest and Ankara both have as much information on the war as possible

Erdogan, too, recently met Russian President Vladimir Putin, so “Budapest and Ankara both have as much information on the war as possible.”

Hungary and Türkiye agree on the importance of a peace conference with both warring side in attendance, Szijjártó said. The peace conference in Switzerland, he added, showed that “it’s impossible to find a solution if only one warring party is present”.