Government: the world is “in the 24th hour”

The world is “in the 24th hour” and must return to the era of connectivity and global cooperation instead of splintering into blocs, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Skopje on Thursday.

Global security is at its worst since the end of the Cold War, and “this is especially true when it comes to Europe,” Szijjártó told a foreign ministerial council meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), according to a ministry statement.

In his address, Szijjártó noted that Hungary, as a neighbour of Ukraine, felt the direct negative impacts of the war, such as soaring inflation, and noted that the country had welcomed more than one million Ukrainian refugees.

Hungarians, he said, felt this impact even though they bore no responsibility for the war and even though “it is not our war”. He also noted that many of the ethnic Hungarians living in Ukraine’s Transcarpathia region had died in the conflict.

“And we, Hungarians do not want more people to die,” he said. “We don’t want more Hungarians to die, but generally speaking, we don’t want more people to die in our neighbourhood.”

Szijjártó said the Hungarian government was doing everything possible in the interest of a diplomatic settlement, arguing that peace was the only solution and the only way to save lives and avoid further destruction.

He said it was “obvious that those who pretend” that there was a solution to the conflict in the battlefield “are not right” because there were only casualties and destruction there. He also said those who thought that the developments in the war would improve the chances for peace “are not right, either”. “Every day spent in this war makes the hope for peace worse and worse,” he said, adding that weapons deliveries also prolonged the fighting.

No direct communication between the United States and Russia

He also underscored the importance of keeping communication channels open, saying that without this, the world would be giving up the hope for peace.

Szijjártó commended the foreign minister of North Macedonia, which holds the OSCE’s rotating presidency, for his efforts to ensure the organisation’s survival and restart East-West cooperation and dialogue. At the same time, he expressed regret over the fact that there would be no direct communication between the United States and Russia at the meeting, although “such a direct contact would be to the benefit of all of us, of Europe, and of the peaceloving people”.

Meanwhile, the minister said Hungary had suffered 40 years of communist dictatorship in a world divided into blocs, which had been ignored by the West. “And we were the losers of a world which was divided into blocs. And we don’t want to come back to a stage of history when we are going to be losers again,” he said, warning against a return to such a time.

Instead of the re-emergence of blocs, he said, the world needed cooperation and connectivity, and the restoration of mutual respect on the international political stage.

Hungary works together with China, Germany happily

Szijjártó warned that Europe’s competitiveness had weakened significantly in recent years, saying that the economic model of growth built on the combination of advanced Western technologies and cheap Eastern energy had collapsed without being replaced by anything else.

He said it was “really alarming and concerning” that certain politicians were talking about decoupling the European and Chinese economies.

Szijjártó said the Hungarian economy had seen considerable success by having become a meeting point of Eastern and Western companies with “the biggest German companies working together happily with the biggest Chinese companies”.

“And if it worked in Hungary, I do believe it could work regionally and globally as well,” he said.

Foreign minister asks Israeli counterpart to promote efforts for release of remaining Hungarian hostages

Szijjártó has asked Eli Cohen, his Israeli counterpart, to promote efforts for the release of Hamas’s two remaining Hungarian hostages. Speaking ahead of a meeting of OSCE foreign ministers in Skopje on Thursday, Szijjártó said the security situation in the Middle East remained concerning, as it was unknown how long the Gaza truce would last and how many more of the Hamas terrorist group’s hostages would be released.

“We consider it especially good news that a ceasefire agreement was reached, and we hope that as many hostages as possible will be freed from captivity,” he said, according to a ministry statement.

Concerning his talks with Cohen in Skopje, Szijjártó said he had thanked his counterpart for Israel having been a reliable partner since the start of the conflict when it came to the Hungarians who were in trouble.

Two male Hungarian hostages

He noted that the Hungarian citizens who had been in Israel had been “evacuated relatively quickly” and that the Hungarian citizens who had been stranded in Gaza had also been among the first to get out. Also, all three of the Hungarian hostages who were women or children have gone free, he added.

“I asked my counterpart for Israel’s help in freeing the two male hostages with Hungarian citizenship as soon as possible, too,” the foreign minister said.

Szijjártó welcomed that one of the two hostages had been confirmed to be alive, saying “it would be good if the other hostage was also found and if they could both return home as soon as possible.”

He said Cohen had reaffirmed that securing the safe release of all of Hamas’s hostages was also in Israel’s interest, adding that they hoped the Hungarian hostage confirmed to be alive could go free as soon as possible.

“We have, of course, also asked Qatar’s government for its help in the matter, and we hope to receive clear proof as soon as possible that the other Hungarian being held hostage is also alive,” Szijjártó said.

Read also:

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• Latest poll: Hungarians worry about Islamist terrorism and sympathise with Israel – Details in THIS article