‘War psychosis’ still rampant in Brussels, says FM Szijjártó
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The European Union remains incapable of undertaking a realistic assessment regarding the war in Ukraine, and “war psychosis is still rampant” in the bloc, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said after a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels on Thursday.
Hungarian companies are discriminated in Ukraine, says Szijjártó
At a press conference, Szijjártó lamented that most member states thought that the war’s territorial expansion did not carry a risk of escalation, and that some of his counterparts had even said that allowing Ukraine to use Western weapons to strike targets in Russia was “a way of achieving peace”.
According to ministry statement, Szijjártó said that because of the extent to which “this goes against reality . we must conclude that this blind pro-war stance and pro-war psychosis will continue to hold sway here in Brussels in the coming months”.
He said several member states urged the EU to allocate a further more than 6 billion euros from the European Peace Facility towards weapons deliveries, adding that Hungary “will not contribute to freeing up a single euro cent as long as Hungarian companies are discriminated against in Ukraine” and measures endangering Hungary’s energy security were in effect.
Szijjártó said the EU’s foreign policy chief had tried to apply pressure in the interest of allowing the deployment of Western weapons against targets in Russia.
We have not and won’t supply weapons to Ukraine
“Hungary’s stance is clear,” the minister said. “We have not and won’t supply weapons to Ukraine, because we’re convinced that the more weapons there are in use in the war in Ukraine, the longer it will last.”
Szijjártó said there was also mounting pressure to expand and extend the EU’s training mission for Ukrainian soldiers, noting that Hungary was not participating in this, either.
“We’ve made it clear that if they want to expand either the territorial scope or function of this training mission, Hungary will not contribute to it,” he said.
He also warned against the “extremely dangerous” idea of continuing the training mission in Ukraine, saying this posed a “serious risk” of escalation. He said that if the EU wanted to extend the mission’s duration in its current form without expanding it elsewhere, Hungary would not block it, but would not support it, either.
Meanwhile, Szijjártó said several participants at the meeting had raised the subject of tightening sanctions, with some of them proposing that they be expanded to include the energy sector. He also said that “a significant number of member states . secretly and hypocritically” continued to by Russian energy.
“I think it’s every country’s and every company’s own business if they buy energy in a way that doesn’t violate the sanctions,” Szijjártó said. “But then why lie? Why be hypocritical? Why not be open, honest and straightforward about it?”
Szijjártó started his press conference by saying that though the informal meeting of foreign ministers would be traditionally held in the country holding the EU’s rotating presidency, it had been moved to Brussels with the intent of “disciplining” Hungary for its pro-peace position. He added, however, that “this won’t work”, vowing that Hungary will continue to urge peace in Ukraine.
Hungarian foreign minister slams EU foreign policy chief’s ‘dangerous’ Middle East proposals
Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on Thursday criticised what he called “dangerous and unreasonable proposals” put forward by European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell concerning the situation in the Middle East. Speaking at a press conference after an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Szijjártó said Borrell “has seemingly lost control” and was putting forward proposals “that are extremely dangerous for Europe”.
Szijjártó criticised a proposal for the EU to impose sanctions on two Israeli ministers.
“It’s an extremely dangerous and absolutely unreasonable proposal, because such a decision would raise major question marks in the Middle East, and would completely undermine the cooperation between the European Union and Israel,” Szijjártó said, according to a ministry statement.
He praised Israel for its agreement with the World Health Organization (WHO) on the launch of a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza.
“This step must be appreciated,” he said. “They wanted to adopt a joint position here today that would have criticised Israel in spite of this agreement, so we asked that it be amended.”
Szijjártó also welcomed Israel’s commitment to guaranteeing religious freedom on the Temple Mount and in the country’s holy places.
“Certain steps in the recent period have raised concern among certain Israeli politicians and certain Christian communities,” he said. “And in this respect I believe the Israeli foreign minister’s and prime minister’s public commitment to maintaining the freedom to practise religion is significant.”
EU-Türkiye cooperation in migration
Meanwhile, Szijjártó said Thursday’s meeting was also attended by Türkiye’s foreign minister, noting that there had not been such a high-level meeting between the EU and Türkiye in the last five years.
Do sijjaarto know more words? Always the same BS, a politician that is just in service to putin as usual
Ah. The risk of escalation by Mr. Putin. The crossing of red lines.
Well – it appears we are still waiting for the response to Finland and Sweden joining NATO, the increase and qualitative change of arms shipments to Ukraine (F16s, anyone?) seems to have been met with some sabre rattling but nothing else. And if an invasion of Russian soil, causing mass evacuations, using Western weaponry is not a trigger… Well. All-mighty Russia is perhaps not as mighty or easily provoked as Mr. Szijjártó may want to make everyone believe.
Hungary appears to be the only country in Europe that wants to throw Ukraine under the bus.
Re the delivery of Russian oil and gas – apparently, there is a contractual issue. You know, the formal rights and obligations thing. Ominously, “The agreements are being negotiated”. Appears somebody dropped the ball somewhere, and now “just” wants the European Union to apply leverage to remedy the situation. Couldn´t possibly be our Politicians???
War mongers were elected to EU Parliament. Until the Ukraine/Russia war, no EU country had much to do with corrupt Ukraine. It is in the interests of global weapon manufacturers that EU’s attitude changed. So far, Ukraine is being destroyed, people are killed or injured and the arm forces members reduced.
Congratulations EU war mongers, your support and attitude really saved Ukraine or whatever was left of it.
The only war monger I can see here is Russia, no one else. The EU and its member states took a position based on Russia’s invasion of another sovereign state, otherwise I agree that little interest would be shown towards Ukraine today. Cause and effect, the cause is Russia, the effect has been unparalleled European solidarity and standing united with the people of Ukraine, Swedish and Finnish accession to NATO, enormous quantities of arms transfers and technical assistance to Ukraine, none of which was in the Russian playbook. You can also be assured that when all this is over Ukraine will arm itself to the teeth to ensure it can never again be invaded from an easterly direction while also building up its military to one of the most technically adept and modern in the world with the full support of the west. Russia wanted a buffer zone puppet between itself and NATO, what it’ll get is a Ukraine that’s de facto already in NATO and likely to join in the future with an eventual military that, in time, could single handedly overwhelm Russia. Massive fail for Russia whose only option is to double down and hope it succeeds before ol’ Vlad keels over.
Russia is just expressing its adverse opinion of removal of buffer states around its borders.