Foreign minister: Hungary Germany’s ‘most loyal’ EU peer
Bécs, 2017. december 7. A Külgazdasági és Külügyminisztérium (KKM) által közreadott képen Szijjártó Péter külgazdasági és külügyminiszter (b) beszél, mellette Paul Bekkers, az EBESZ fõtitkársága igazgatója (k) és Szergej Lavrov orosz külügyminiszter az Európai Biztonsági és Együttmûködési Szervezet (EBESZ) miniszteri tanácsa ülése alkalmával az üldözött keresztények védelmérõl tartott tanácskozáson Bécsben 2017. december 7-én. MTI Fotó: KKM
The 800 million euros Hungary has spent on border protection makes it Germany’s “most loyal European country”, the Hungarian foreign minister said in Vienna on Thursday.
Szijjártó reacted to recent remarks by German Social Democrat (SPD) leader Martin Schulz, who said “Hungary is getting further and further away from the EU”.
In remarks to MTI, Szijjártó said that had Hungary not invested in border protection, “many more than 1.5 million migrants” would have come to Europe and “the vast majority would certainly have ended up in Germany”.
He added the Hungarian government had spent that sum on the border rather than on the economy, “saving Germany from further burdens”.
In Vienna, Szijjártó attended a plenary of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and proposed that the organisation should deploy observers to Ukraine’s Transcarpathia region. He argued that Hungary was concerned about Ukraine’s new education law, which curbs the rights of ethnic minorities to education in their mother tongue.
Szijjártó also proposed fortifying protections for persecuted Christians. He urged that the “monstrosities” committed against Christian communities should not go unpunished and the international community should “make a guarantee” that Christians in the Middle East can return to their homelands as soon as “the conflicts are over”.
Featured image: MTI
Source: MTI
