Kuwaiti and Hungarian Foreign Ministers met in Budapest

Hungary and Kuwait are both in favour of urgent peace talks in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said after talks with his Kuwaiti counterpart in Budapest on Monday, arguing that the conflict could only be resolved through diplomacy.

“Given our own history, we, of course, condemn the war,” Szijjártó told a joint press conference with Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, according to a ministry statement. “Given our own history, we are, of course, committed to protecting and respecting sovereignty and the principle of territorial integrity. However, both countries believe in a peaceful resolution.”

“We’ve made it clear multiple times — both Kuwaitis and Hungarians — that there is no resolution to this war on the battlefield, only casualties of which there are more and more with each passing day,” Szijjarto said. “This war can only be resolved through diplomacy, only through negotiations.”

Szijjártó emphasised that neither Hungary nor Kuwait supplied weapons to the war, only humanitarian aid. This would not change, he said, arguing that weapons deliveries prolonged the conflict and caused more death.

“So we would like to make it clear again that it’s time for the peace camp to turn up the volume, because … there are more countries in the world that want peace than there are those suffering from war psychosis,”

Szijjártó said.

Meanwhile, the minister warned that the war in Ukraine should not overshadow “the unprecedented global threat of terrorism”.

“Islamic State has yet to be defeated, and if we take a look, we can see that terrorism is rearing its head in Afghanistan, Africa, and in more and more places and continents,” he said.

Terrorism is one of the main causes of migration, with the two together forming a “vicious cycle”, Szijjártó said, arguing that the threat of terrorism led to mass migration waves, which could be infiltrated by terrorists, enabling them to get from one part of the world to another.