FM Szijjártó: European security starts in Africa

In order to eliminate the causes of migration, efforts must be made to stabilise Africa politically and economically, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said during a break of the European Union’s foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday.

Commenting on the upcoming EU-Africa summit to be held in late November, he said Hungary supports making African countries the targets of the EU’s economic and investment policies.

Szijjártó insisted that “tens of millions of people” from Africa — “desperate masses seeking a better and safer life” — were “on their way to Europe”.

The economic and political situation on the continent must be stabilised in order to tackle the root causes of migration, he added.

“European security starts in Africa,” he said.

When it comes to creating EU programmes for Africa, however, it is vitally important that strict conditions should be binding on funding, the minister added.

“Security risks are constantly growing in immigrant countries … but we do not want to become a country of immigrants; we want to protect ourselves and we will protect ourselves,” he said.

Szijjártó said it appeared that

European countries were being expected to adjust to migrants arriving in Europe rather than the other way round, calling this “a sad state of affairs”. 

Referring to a recent decision to remove a cross from a statue in France, Szijjártó said the Hungarian government considered it “shocking and unacceptable” that Christian symbols would be removed from certain public areas.

Source: MTI