According to Szijjártó, the ‘global peace majority’ is not loud enough
It is time to “turn up the volume” of the voices of the global pro-peace majority, and Hungary will continue to call for a diplomatic resolution of the war in Ukraine, “despite all the attacks and pressure”, the foreign minister said in New York on Tuesday.
Péter Szijjártó said that Monday’s meeting of the UN Security Council had made it clear that the international community was grouped around two opposing approaches to the issue.
Proponents of the war continue to make statements that risk an escalation, even as the “overwhelming majority of the world” want a swift end to the conflict, the ministry cited Szijjártó as saying.
“Nevertheless, representatives of the transatlantic world made speeches and statements yesterday that clearly signal that the war would carry on, and bring a clear risk of escalation,” Szijjártó said.
Therefore, the pro-peace camp’s voice should be made louder and “we should make it clear that the overwhelming majority of the world finally wants peace,” he said.
Szijjártó rejected the “accusations” of John Asselborn, his Luxembourg counterpart, who said Hungary wasn’t showing enough solidarity with Ukraine. “We Hungarians have accepted more than one million refugees form Ukraine,” he said, adding that Luxembourg was “probably” lagging behind that number.
He also said that Hungarians were dying “in growing numbers” in the war.
Commenting on the collapse of the agreement allowing Ukraine to export grain through ports on its Russian-held Black Sea coast, Szijjártó said the agreement had been key to mitigating the conflict’s effects in “easily destabilising regions”.
Central Europe’s role in grain transits is expected to grow, and Hungary has completed serious infrastructural improvements in good time, he said.
Hungary is ready to allow grain transits to Africa and the Middle East to avoid a food crisis and the consequent new waves of migration from those regions. At the same time, it must be avoided that Ukrainian grain upends central European markets, “just because a neighbouring country doesn’t have to abide by EU regulations,” he said.
At the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Szijjártó said he would call on the meeting to “talk about peace now that war has dominated the discourse of international organisations for more than 500 days” since the war began.
“To achieve peace, we obviously need a ceasefire, negotiations and a peace agreement,” he said.
He welcomed all peace efforts and called on the UN to provide a platform for the discourse on peace, too.
Commenting on talks with company representatives, Szijjártó said US and German companies were “under a huge pressure, often amounting to blackmail”, to shun Hungary as an investment site. “The liberal US and German leadership do not agree with the direction the Hungarian people have set,” he said.
“It is clear to see, however, that German and US companies are not phased by that, and investments from those countries are growing constantly … I hope to conclude agreements on a few US investments in Hungary today,” he added.
What a stupid man, making a fool of himself in our name. THERE IS NO GLOBAL PEACE MAJORITY. There is a global “get Russia out of Ukraine” majority. He thinks saying he wants peace, with Russia taking parts of a free nation, is a good think, all the while crying about a 100 year old treaty. Just shut up!
The way Orbán and Fidesz are tied to Putin’s hip, I sometimes wonder what kind of plan they had in place before the war started. Before Putin invaded Ukraine like a 20th century thug. Events have led me to consider that maybe Russia, Hungary and Serbia had a plan of mutual support and land grabbing. Hungary supports Russia in its vicious attack(which it basically has) and will reap the western edge of Ukraine when Russia wins. Serbia will attack Kosovo with the support of Moscow and diplomatic support of Hungary, and Hungary will gain the northern part of Serbia in exchange.
King Orbán will be lauded as the saviour of greater Hungary and move into the castle, which is currently losing The National Gallery. All the construction on castle hill will serve our future king and his lords and ladies. The new Empire was supposed to be coming, but Putin, Orban and Aleksandar Vučić didn’t expect Ukraine to fight so valiantly. They didn’t expect the West to stand up to these pathetic “leaders”, Just a thought.
Oh, here we go, again. Where to start.
Peace. Everyone wants peace. However, not at any price. Appeasement is a very tricky thing, especially with Mr. Putin´s Russia. Arguably, the world should have acted on the annexation of Crimea.
Then Mr. Szijjártó´s usual lie. Let us call a spade a spade for a change: Lies. “we Hungarians have accepted more than one million refugees from Ukraine”. FACT: as of July 9, 2023, we are hosting 52,335 Ukrainians.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1312584/ukrainian-refugees-by-country/
I know. You need to scroll down a fair bit to find Hungary. Ukrainian refugees generally crossed our border just to leave again. Go elsewhere. As with the immigrants, asylum seekers, you name it. We are not a destination country. Not the Promised Land.
Norbert, je zou beter eens zeggen waarom de vluchtelingen doorreizen naar mijn land België om er maar een te noemen!!??Ik ken het antwoord en jij??
Hello Hugo – Interesting to compare stats. Amazing that, with all of our “promoting families” stuff, we have the same fertility rate as Belgium at 1.6 (whereas we need 2.1 to just have our population stay the same). Three points for starters: you live longer and healthier, and there are more cities to choose from.
https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/hungary-demographics/
https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/belgium-demographics/
Standard of living – https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/standard-of-living-by-country
Guess that now I know why my Hungarian staff is emigrating to the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, etc. in droves. Good thing (for them) they are EU Citizens with all of the various benefits this brings!
Interesting breakdown re asylum seekers – https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?oldid=558844#Main_countries_of_destination_.E2.80.93_Germany.2C_France.2C_Spain_and_Austria
Hugo, this is an English language news site. It’s very cute that you always write in some language no one cares to translate. Your passive aggressive behavior is pathetic.
@Hugo I am happy to have Deepl do it´s magic and engage in meaningful discussion! Hence always curious as to people´s sources for facts, etc. Fascinating.