Hungarian Foreign Minister says peace will come if Ukraine does not get more weapons
The international community’s primary task should be to save lives, so in spite of “attacks and pressures”, the government is sticking to its standpoint and calling for the earliest possible peace in Ukraine, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said in Strasbourg on Monday.
Addressing a meeting of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, Szijjártó said he had asked to speak before Europe’s broadest political platform in the interest of promoting dialogue, even though many participants likely disagreed with his position, according to a ministry statement.
The minister said Europe now faced the most severe economic and security challenges since the second world war, and it was a question of whether the regional conflict would broaden into a world war.
Some European leaders, he insisted, suffered from “war psychosis”. Ordinary people, he added, were not responsible for the war in Ukraine, yet everyone was paying the price in the form of skyrocketing inflation.
In the 16 months since the war broke out, Europe, he said, had been unable to end it and establish peace. “The danger of escalation is at a high point, while our competitiveness has hit an all-time low,” he added.
Szijjártó said Europe had committed two major errors by burrowing ever deeper into its sanctions policy while refusing not to compete with the US regarding who could provide more significant military support to Ukraine.
The war is taking place in Europe, he said, and its gravest consequences “must be faced here”. Europe, he added, had got caught up in a “distinctly dangerous spiral”.
“As more weapons end up in Ukraine, the longer the war lasts … ever more people die,”
he said, adding that the international community’s most pressing task was to save lives by securing the peace.
He said punitive measures had failed to bring Russia to heel; conversely, the fighting had only become increasingly brutal.
Hungary, he said as a neighbouring state of Ukraine was seriously and directly faced with the war’s fallout, and many Transcarpathian Hungarians had fallen victim to the war.
Szijjártó also decried “waning European competitiveness”, noting that the US had adopted laws skewed in favour of its own industries just as the EU placed companies under hardship on the back of sanctions.
The world, he said, was once again falling into rivalling blocs, which was “the worst possible news” for Hungary. Central Europe, he added, had always lost out when it came to conflicts between East and West. He called for “civilised cooperation” between East and West in place of conflict. “We’d support links based on mutual respect and mutual benefits,” he said.
Szijjártó warned against slashing EU-China economic ties. Citing the transition of the electric car industry, he said the sector, “decisive for the entire European economy”, was fully dependent on Chinese batteries, “so for this reason alone a fissure would be highly problematic”.
Whereas Hungary represents a minority position on the war in Europe, “the world is bigger than Europe and the transatlantic region, and the vast majority of countries want peace as soon as possible,” he said, adding that the Hungarian government was under constant attack and pressure for its position, but it was pursuing national interests in line with “the will of the people”.
As we told a week ago, Hungary released Ukrainian PoWs, Kyiv outraged
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8 Comments
So no more weapons to Ukraine. Will Russia stop with a disarmed Ukraine – No of course they will not because such a course of action is a gift to them in their war of conquest. Putin is a war criminal – no more no less and there have been many war crimes committed by the Russian army. Get real here because all we can see is appeasement by the Hungarian Government regarding the Russians which then begs the question what do the Hungarian Government expect to get back in return for their attitude.
Who’s the war criminal here? Many do not know the correct story about who started the war in the Ukraine. But it is the West that started this war already in year 2014, in the eastern part of Ukraine, called the Donbas. And to stop the skirmish by the Minsk agreements, they were ignored by the West, Also the March 2022 peace negotiations in Istanbul were sabotaged by the West, so Russia had no choice but to invade Ukraine to stand up for the Russian-oriented population there.
@keithbigg
Wholeheartedly agree with your statement.
Mr. Szijjártó appears to be parroting Mr. Putin’s talking points at his address to the recent St. Petersburg forum he attended as the sole EU / Western representative – an attentive listener!
“The 70-year-old leader said Ukraine had almost depleted all of its own weapons and armoury, and will soon be reliant on supplies solely from its allies.”
“Soon Ukraine will stop using its own equipment altogether. Nothing remains of it. Everything with which they fight and everything that they use is brought in from the outside. You can’t fight for long like that.”
And then the blatant “denazification” lie … Ukraine is not a nazi state …
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/16/st-petersburg-forum-what-did-russian-president-putin-say
Idiotic points throughout the Foreign Minister of the Hungary’s address.
Keith bigg – concur with your comments.
The points Szijjarto raises just BLATANT to favour Russia and Hungary.
“Roll over” without a fight, let the HUMILIATED and Financially damaged Russia just walk in and take what they want.
The Potsdam Conference of 1945 – the “roll over” of Roosevelt – the American President, giving into Starlin, what Russia acquired, was a MAJOR cataclysmic error.
This must and can NEVER occur in this Russian War on the Ukraine.
Szijjarto, no doubt his paper presentation was approved by Putin, and of course Victor Orban.
It just again demonstrates to the WORLD, the “in bed” position growing that Hungary has with Russia and China.
All countries supplying weapons to Ukraine are contributing to the destruction of Ukraine and the killing of Ukrainians along Russia. Did the weapons suppliers ever start putting a peace plan on the table? Mr. Sijjarto is right, Hungary is not responsible for on Ukrainian deaths, Hungary has a clear conscience.
Two things should be kept in mind:
1. The invasion started because Zelensky decided to join NATO. This action could have been delayed and diplomacy should have been used.
2. Russia is occupying ancient Russian lands, land that were part of Russia since 1774 and mainly occupied by ethnic Russians and other minorities.
@mariavontheresa – devoid of facts and data, as per usual: https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/Western-Ukraine-under-Polish-rule – you will particularly appreciate the Russian efforts to suppress Ukrainian language and culture, as well as the infamous Holodomor inflicted on Ukraine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor
Re NATO Membership. Expressing an interest does not mean you will become a Member. All current Members must agree. Ask Sweden. It’s a pretext, an excuse – might makes right, invoking a “special operation” to capture Kyiv, replace leadership of a sovereign state with your own vassals and expect the Crimea precedent to hold (disapproval from the world, but also appeasement to Mr. Putin’s Russia).
Lastly, what you appear to be advocating is that military action is entirely justified, even when diplomatic options have not yet been exhausted. That is quite … Scary ???
The Orban government is a self-described partner with Putin’s regime with Fidesz enriching kickbacks happening with every secret oil and gas and nuclear power contract they sign. Should Ukraine triumph over Russia it has a high likelihood of bringing down Putin from office. For this reason the Orban government fears a Ukrainian victory which would disrupt the status quo system it has with Russia and actively obstructs Western military assistance to Ukraine. Should Putin lose in Ukraine it will be an enormous loss of face for Orban and his government and would undermine and isolate the Fidesz regime creating an impetus for regime change in Hungary. Szijjarto and Orban seek to resign Ukraine to Russian slavery and profit from it. Orban has set up a political and economic elite completely dependant on himself which is a copy of the Putin model which supports him.