Bled Strategic Forum – Deepening rift in Europe between pro-, anti-immigration parties, says Hungarian FM

Bled, 2017. szeptember 4. A Külgazdasági és Külügyminisztérium (KKM) által közreadott képen Szijjártó Péter külgazdasági és külügyminiszter (j) és Mevlüt Cavusoglu török külügyminiszter a Bledi Stratégiai Fórumon 2017. szeptember 4-én. MTI Fotó: KKM

A rift is deepening between those in Europe who support immigration and those who see it as a security risk, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told MTI after taking part in the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia.

The dispute is becoming more and more serious, he said, “further aggravating an exceptionally high-handed understanding of solidarity”.

Various European countries are choosing imperiously between elements of solidarity, the minister said, adding that this endangered Europe, since security and solidarity were being treated as separate from one another.

“Solidarity and security must be taken hand-in-hand; one cannot exist without the other,” Szijjártó said.

“The solidarity that undermines the security of the continent is not solidarity but something damaging for Europe,” he added.

According to Hungary’s position, security and border defence are key components of solidarity, ones that should in any case be taken into account, Szijjártó said.

In addition to protecting the Hungarian border and consequently that of western Europe, Hungary has also provided significant help to the countries of the western Balkans, enabling them to protect their own borders, he added.

This year, a total of 367 Hungarian police are in service in the western Balkans, including 226 in Macedonia, 105 in Serbia and 26 in Bulgaria, he said. Szijjártó assured his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Dimitrov of Hungary’s readiness to maintain its presence along the western Balkan borders next year.

Szijjártó held bilateral meetings with Montenegro’s Minister of European Affairs Aleksandar Andrija, Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec and Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar. All were in agreement that the integration of the western Balkans needs to be accelerated because it is a crucial security issue for the European Union as a whole, too.

As we wrote yesterday, people who do not equate border protection with solidarity do not understand Europe’s current situation, and solidarity that refuses to take into account border protection is not true solidarity”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared at a press conference.