Hungary needs an agreement that does not impair Hungarian-British relations

“We need an agreement between Great Britain and the European Union that does not lead to a deterioration of relations between Hungary and Great Britain”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said at the Europe After Brexit conference.

At the international conference organised by the Foundation for a Civil Hungary and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Mr. Szijjártó stressed: “We need a fair agreement between the EU and Great Britain”.

“We reject the approach according to which the British must be punished; their decision must be respected, even if it would have been in Hungary’s interests for Great Britain to remain a member of the European Union”, he said.

“Brexit is a political loss because the British spoke objectively and pragmatically in the debate about the future of Europe, and the sovereignty camp has lost ‘its loudest voice’. Brexit isn’t the cause of difficulties, but the consequence of the EU not having introduced the measures that it should have”, he explained, adding that “The personal consequences have only been drawn on one side; the Brussels institutions have not done so”.

“A new world order has come into being; a multi-poled system has been established instead of the unipolar system”, he said, mentioning the “more determinedly patriotic than ever before” US economic policy as one of the changes. “We are also practicing patriotic economic policies”, he added.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister said “it should not be a surprise” that the new President is placing the United States first, and we can either “cry about it” or make decisions that enable us to remain competitive in these changing conditions, he said. “It is also good that the new President has stated: every nation has the right to place itself first”, he added.

Mr. Szijjártó said another change was the possibility of improving American-Russian relations, adding that “Hungary is rooting for” the re-establishment of these relations because Central and Eastern Europe had always been the losers of previous conflicts between East and West.

The Foreign Minister also spoke about EU-Russian relations. “It is impossible to have an open dialogue about the sanctions in the EU, despite the fact that it is an important issue: the measures have been a failure from both a political and economic perspective”, he said.

Great Britain’s Ambassador to Budapest Iain Lindsay stressed that although Great Britain will be exiting the European Union, it will remain Europe’s “reliable partner, committed ally and close friend” because they are linked by many mutual interests.
“Great Britain must develop a new relationship with the EU for Brexit to be successful. The goal is for everyone to feel they are a winner”, he said.