Hungary to comply with NATO decision on Afghanistan troop withdrawal

Hungary will comply with NATO’s decision concerning a military pullout from Afghanistan, Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s foreign minister, told MTI before a special ministerial session of NATO on Wednesday.

Szijjártó said he agreed with the approach that the simultaneous entry of NATO troops into Afghanistan should be followed by their simultaneous withdrawal.

Hungary used to station 120 to 130 soldiers in Afghanistan while its present contingent has nine members, he said.

Szijjártó said NATO should pass a decision which guarantees that the efforts of the past twenty years do not go to waste.

He stressed the need of guarantees so that Afghanistan should not become once again a hotbed of terrorism and a source of massive migration. If Afghans are again exposed to the threat of terrorism, hundreds of thousands or even millions of them may leave their homeland, he said.