Hungarian government does not see Russia as a security threat to any NATO member
Croatia and Hungary’s relations are weakest in the field of energy, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, told Croatian news agency HINA in an interview published on Tuesday.
Szijjártó attended on Monday the inauguration of a local primary school in Petrinja that had been damaged in an earthquake and rebuilt with 8.7 billion forints (EUR 22.5m) of Hungarian government support.
He called the fully rebuilt school “proof of the friendship between Hungary and Croatia and their people”.
In the interview to HINA, Szijjártó said the two countries’ relations were strongest on the protection of the identity and cultural heritage of each other’s national minorities, which he said “could be used as a benchmark in Europe.” At the same time, energy cooperation is the “weakest link” in bilateral ties, he added.
Szijjártó said he understood that regaining ownership of the INA oil company was a key issue for the Croatian government, but “this should not be considered as an issue between the two states”. Talks on this, he said, should be carries out with Hungarian oil and gas company MOL, which is a Hungarian company, but not state-owned.
The minister said he had told his Croatian partners on multiple occasions that Hungary understood that this was a problem, but it had to be kept separate from every other aspect of bilateral cooperation. He added that the Croatian government seemed not to be ready for this.
According to MOL, Croatian oil pipeline operator Janaf was charging a “disproportionately high and unfair” transit fee for its services.
Szijjártó said that the situation should not be “ideologised or politicised” because the matter was a technical one. Hungary, he noted, can only buy natural gas from Russia via Ukraine or from Janaf operating the Croatian section of the Adria pipeline.
Janaf does not have the capacities to be able to make up for a potential shutdown of the pipeline delivering oil from Russia, Szijjártó said. He said that if there had been a “real will” to increase the pipeline’s capacity, there would have been progress in the two years since the start of the war in Ukraine, “but nothing has happened”, adding that Budapest was concerned by this.
He pointed out that supply security was a key issue for Hungary, and Janaf had only offered a three-month agreement and raised prices significantly since the start of the war.
As regards European Union enlargement, Szijjártó said the project would remain incomplete until all Western Balkan countries are EU members. Hungary believes the EU needs the Western Balkans more than the other way round, he added.
He said the bloc was suffering from losing its competitiveness, war fatigue and from becoming less relevant in global politics. Enlargement would give the EU “freshness” and new momentum, he said, adding that Hungary will put significant emphasis on speeding up the process during its presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of the year.
Hungary has a vested interest in the stability of the Western Balkans, so the Hungarian government opposes EU sanctions against Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, Szijjártó said. He said European sanctions had never been effective anywhere, so there was no point in sanctioning a democratically elected leader as that “would only make the situation worse”. Instead, Budapest urges dialogue, he said, adding that his discussions with Dodik made it clear that he was committed to a European path for his country.
The minister said the acceleration of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s EU membership should be used as a “common denominator” that would unite the country’s leaders and nationalities and ease tensions.
Meanwhile, he said Serbia “can join the European Union easily tomorrow”, and as the “biggest and strongest” country in the region, there could be no stability in the Western Balkans without it.
He said Serbia was a proud nation, adding that the “bureaucracy in Brussels” should change its approach to the country, and that instead of “lecturing”, they should communicate “eye to eye”.
He said linking Serbia’s EU membership to the normalisation of ties with Kosovo was unfair to Belgrade, arguing that this was not solely up to Serbia.
Meanwhile, Szijjártó expressed disagreement with recent remarks by certain Western military leaders, citing Denmark’s defence minister as saying that a Russian attack on a NATO country in a few years could not be ruled out.
“Why would they do so? NATO is much stronger than Russia … Why would one attack someone who is much stronger? Why would that make sense for Russia?” Szijjártó said.
“I do not see Russia as a security threat to any NATO member state at all.”
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Szijjarto is acting as a promoter of Russian propaganda. Fidesz is completely in Putin’s pocket. If the Hungarian government is going to make these statements it should not be in NATO or in the EU. Russia is an existential threat to every front-line state that shares a border with Russia or Belarus. Every front-line state without exception has been ringing the alarm bells on the Russian threat. Part of Russian methods is to undermine the efforts of NATO states to defend themselves with statements like what Szijjarto is making. Hungary itself has become a threat to Europe and NATO through its’ constant efforts to undermine collective security for example blocking entry of first Finland and now Sweden and all aid to Ukraine as well as by demonizing American involvement in European security efforts without which Europe is quite impotent.
Peter Magyar has said the truth about what Fidesz is and he was completely inside the party and its’ business links: “I had to slowly and finally realize that all of this is really just a political product, a sugar-coating that serves only two purposes: to cover up the operation of the power factory and to acquire enormous amounts of wealth,” A lot of that acquired wealth in their corrupt pockets is coming from every deal Fidesz makes with the Russians and the Chinese. Putin has bought Viktor Orban.
Is this before or after the Russians issued their 100th threat to destroy Paris and London and Washington and Berlin with nuclear fire?
These clowns can’t keep their lies and talking points straight anymore, even with all of the wonderful technology available to them. Must be all that covering up child-rape by Orban and Fidesz. Family values, huh? Just like all the Republican kiddie-rapers here in the U.S.