Hungarian FM: Hungary, Guatemala together stand for Christian values

Hungary and Guatemala together stand for Christian values, traditional family model in international politics, even if this goes against the liberal mainstream, the minister of foreign affairs and trade said on Thursday.

Péter Szijjártó said in Guatemala City that his visit was an event of diplomatic history as high-level visits had never taken place between the two countries hitherto.

He said Hungary was determined to pursue international relations based on connectivity and cultured, civilised cooperation, and wanted links between Hungary and Guatemala, too, to follow the same direction.

Considering the great distance between the two countries, the securest basis for cooperation was interpersonal relations, he said, and an agreement enabling twenty students from Guatemala to study in Hungarian universities with a scholarship each year was in the pipeline, he added.

Economic cooperation, he said, was increasingly active, with the annual value of trade doubling last year, reaching a record 7 million dollars, while growth in trade so far this year has been 19 percent.

“The first Hungarian companies have arrived in the Guatemala market in the areas of health care, the food industry, and IT,” he said.

Notwithstanding their geographical distance, both countries see almost eye to eye regarding the most important global challenges, he said, adding that both were “under attack” by the international liberal mainstream because they took their Christian traditions seriously, stressing the importance of protecting the traditional family model.

According to a ministry statement, Szijjártó noted that families in Hungary enjoy constitutional protections such as the statement that “the mother is a woman and the father a man”.

Both countries, he said, were “proud of their culture and national characteristics” and refused to give them up.

Szijjártó said both Hungary and Guatemala were eying the war in the Middle East with “deep concern”.

He said it was important not to lose sight of how the conflict started. “Israel was hit by a terrorist attack…” he said.

“Terrorism must be eradicated; such an attack must not take place ever again.”

Every effort, he added, must be made to avoid the emergence of a war between countries in the Middle East, as “this could lead to unforeseeable consequences”.

Source: MTI