Hungary’s NATO membership is not up for debate

Gergely Gulyás, the prime minister’s chief of staff, said today morning that it was in Hungary’s interest that Ukraine’s territorial integrity was respected by everyone, including Russia. The issue at hand is Ukraine’s future NATO membership, on which western Europe must establish its own position, he said.

In response to a question, Gulyás called Russia a reliable gas supplier. Hungary’s NATO membership is not up for debate, he said. Hungary’s interests lie in a united NATO and in averting war in Ukraine, he said. Gulyás said Russia felt that it had been deceived in connection with the enlargement of NATO, but recognised the alliance’s expansion over the past decade and a half.

What Russia does not want is for the enlargement to continue,

he added.

Turning to the economy, Gulyás said Hungary’s GDP had grown by almost 7 percent last year, the highest growth rate since the change of regime in 1989-90. The government wants as many people as possible to benefit from the economic growth, he added.

Asked about Monday’s teacher strike for a wage hike and workload reduction, Gulyas said it was unlawful in lack of a binding court ruling on the action.

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Answering a question,

Gulyás said Prime Minister Viktor Orbán would not attend Friday’s opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Beijing.

He added that although vaccines offered less protection against Omicron than against the previous variants, they were still the most effective way to prevent severe illness from the virus. Hungary has more than 8.1 million doses of coronavirus vaccine in stock, he said.

Asked about coronavirus vaccines, Gulyás called it “harmful” that EU authorities including the European Medicines Agency (EMA) had not authorised either Russia’s Sputnik V, which he said had been shown to offer “the best possible protection”, or China’s Sinopharm which has been approved by the WHO. “Until they do so, we cannot speak of full equality,” he said.

Meanwhile, government spokeswoman Alexandra Szentkirályi said

Hungary would participate in the joint EU procurement of Pfizer’s antiviral drug Paxlovid for treatment of Covid.

She added that enough of the medicine for 50,000 courses of treatment would be ordered initially, but that volume could be raised later.

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