Hungarian FM Szijjártó: Countries that are brave enough to be pro-peace need to cooperate

“Cooperation is needed between countries that are brave enough to speak up for an early peace in Ukraine, which could promote a diplomatic settlement,” Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Dushanbe on Tuesday.

According to a statement from the foreign ministry, Szijjártó held talks with Sirojiddin Muhriddin, his Tajik counterpart, in Tajikistan’s capital.

“Some political leaders of Europe, unfortunately, think that they are at war and so is Europe, while it is not true: the war is between Ukraine and Russia,” he stressed. He said the longer the war lasted, the greater the risk of further escalation was.

Szijjártó noted that he was meeting his Tajik counterpart for the 11th time, “which shows the importance of bilateral ties for both countries”.

Hungary and Tajikistan have signed an agreement on security cooperation and coordination of the war against crime, the ministry said citing Szijjártó.

Szijjártó said after talks with Muhriddin that relations between the two countries were based on mutual respect and the agreement on security cooperation and the fight against crime was the result of common views they shared about the importance of peace and the fight againts terrorism.

He added that similarly to Hungary, Tajikistan also called for a peace agreement in Ukraine as soon as possible.

Hungary is preparing to fulfil the rotating presidency of the European Union and priorities for the community in the upcoming period now include strengthening cooperation with central Asia, he said.

“No wonder, since the central Asian region is developing very dynamically and the failed sanctions against Russia that caused more damage to Europe also resulted in the rearrangement of east-west trade routes, with the role of central Asia having increased considerably for Europe’s trade with the East,” he added.

He said that he had agreed with his Tajik counterpart that an enhanced partnership agreement between Tajikistan and the EU would be finalised during the Hungarian presidency.

“Additionally, we will ensure that Tajikistan receives financial support from the EU for the success of its border protection efforts, considering that Tajikistan has a vely long 1,500 km border with Afghanistan from where we know that the threat of terrorism continually starts towards Europe,” he said.

“And if the Tajiks cannot hold this back and they cannot protect the Tajik-Afghan border, then Europe will face an even more severe challenge of terrorism in the upcoming period,” he added.

He assured Muhriddin of Hungary’s support for Tajikistan to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council by the end of the decade and said that the government will maintain its offer of annual twenty scholarships for Tajik students to study at Hungarian universities.

Szijjártó: ‘Nuclear war madness’ can only be ended by voting for pro-peace politicians

The conflict in Ukraine must be ended swiftly to prevent “nuclear war madness”, and that is possible only with a surge of pro-peace forces at the European parliamentary elections, the foreign minister said.

Szijjártó said the war was posing increasing challenges “due to the increasing degree of massacre and destruction, the growing weapon deliveries, and because some European politicians are whipping themselves into war madness, to the point where nuclear war madness has also appeared in the European discourse.”

“War madness in Western Europe has reached a new dimension and turned into a sort of nuclear war madness. We have heard the French and Polish presidents speak about the possibility of nuclear war.”

Szijjártó said that should the war in Ukraine spread further, it was likely to escalate into a third world war and possibly a nuclear war, “and in that case, everything and everyone will be lost, which no one with any common sense can wish for.”

Szijjártó called for a ceasefire and peace talks as soon as possible. “The European parliamentary elections on June 9 could be a great step in that direction, because people can save Europe and the world from the madness of a nuclear war,” he said, and called on Hungarians to cast their votes, “and don’t forget . that nuclear war madness can be ended by voting for Fidesz.”

Orbán: Europe balancing the edge between peace, war

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán arrived in Kaposvár, in southern Hungary, on the campaign trail, where he had talks with Mayor Károly Szita and met voters, the PM’s press chief said on Tuesday.

Orbán said “the world is balancing on a knife’s edge”, adding that humanity was on the border between peace and a devastating war that would destroy everything.

“In the past two world wars, we Hungarians learnt that war was a bad thing, a devastating flood that carries everything away. First of all, it brings death and suffering, but it also takes families’ savings, the house and animals. It tramples countries’ economy into the ground and shoots prices into the sky. So when we raise our voices for peace, we’re defending not only human lives but our economy too,” Bertalan Havasi cited Orbán as saying.

The most important thing is to create peace, Orbán said. “Instead of pro-war leftist representatives, we must send pro-peace, right-wing representatives into European institutions,” he said.

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