FM Szijjártó: guarantees needed before voting for extending anti-Russia sanctions

The foreign minister has said that before he meets EU counterparts in Brussels on Monday, he wants to make clear that “guarantees are needed either from Ukraine or from the European Union” on Hungary’s future energy security.

Péter Szijjártó said in an interview to public radio on Sunday that putting the Hungarian economy and energy security at risk would be a red line for Hungary. The EU foreign ministers are scheduled tomorrow to decide whether to extend the existing sanctions against Russia, he noted. “Our position has been consistent day in day out: sanctions are harmful,” he said, adding that they caused far greater damage to Europe’s economy than to Russia’s.

Rather than bringing peace closer, sanctions only served to reduce living standards in Europe while causing economic damage to European countries, he added. Hungary, Szijjártó said, had “fought hard” against sanctions so as to prevent harm to national security and strategic interests. Brussels had not so far managed to enforce sanctions against Hungary’s will when it came to gas deliveries or nuclear industrial cooperation, he added.

He added, however, that the EU “turns its head the other way” or even encourages Ukraine “to behave shamelessly” towards certain EU countries. Szijjártó noted the restrictions of energy shipments to Hungary and Slovakia, and he insisted that “attacks” had been made against the TurkStream pipeline.

He said Hungary and other central European EU member states were being threatened by a country bidding to become an EU member, while the European Commission tried to convince Hungary to ease sanctions and allow Ukraine “to play us for fools” when it came to energy security. “This won’t work in the future; we’ve made that clear,” he said. Szijjártósaid the government represented Hungarian interests. “For us Hungary comes first,” he added.