Minister: our aim is to have the best intelligence service in Central Europe
Because Hungary wants to be among the winners of the emerging new global era, the government wants a intelligence service that is strong in European terms and central Europe’s strongest, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Thursday.
In a briefing to parliament’s national security committee, Szijjártó said the pandemic, its effects on the economy and changes on the international political scene had “fundamentally disrupted the status quo in every area”. This, the minister said, had left countries jostling for position to be among the winners of the new era of the global economy and global politics.
Whenever the status quo is disrupted, the ability of countries to enforce their interests becomes all the more significant, Szijjártó said.
In such times of change the use of covert techniques becomes more important than under normal circumstances, as do intelligence services,
he added.
As regards the appointment of Zsolt Bunford to head the Information Office (IH), Hungary’s civilian intelligence agency focused on intelligence gathering operations primarily abroad, Szijjártó said Bunford was expected to devote special attention to protecting the country’s sovereignty and expanding its room for manoeuvre. Another important aim, he said, was for the IH to allocate more resources towards boosting Hungary’s competitiveness and attracting more foreign investments.
Szijjártó said the
Szijjártó said the
IH had gathered 60 percent more data over the past year than the preceding period, even though it was hampered by pandemic restrictions.
The office, he added, had also made progress in its cooperation with its foreign partners.
Asked by the Socialist Party’s Zsolt Molnár about the situation of ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine’s Transcarpathia region, Szijjártó said that despite the government’s efforts, their situation was unchanged. Though Kiev at high-level meetings regularly promises to treat ethnic Hungarians better, these promises are usually followed by adverse measures on their part, he said.
Asked by Democratic Coalition MP Ágnes Vadai
about the Pegasus spyware case,
the minister said the IH had not purchased or operated the software, and it was not engaged in talks to buy it, either.
Asked about press reports citing the foreign ministry as having confirmed that it had issued a visa to an ally of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Szijjártó said visas were issued by consuls according to a specific bureaucratic process in which it would be “very difficult” to interfere politically.
Asked by Jobbik’s János Stummer and LMP’s Péter Ungar if he expected to see foreign meddling in next year’s general election, Szijjártó said certain countries were engaging in activities that could be interpreted as an attempt to interfere in Hungary’s internal affairs. He said
one embassy in particular was inviting bids to support a publication with clear political leanings, while embassies of other countries ran Facebook pages aimed at criticising the Hungarian government’s policies.
Read also Government lied to the EU about the Pegasus spyware scandal?
Source: MTI
With enemies of western EU surrounding the country and anti-patriot NGO’s the country needs a good intelligence service to protect sovereignty.
Intelligence and this government are mutually exclusive. By the way, ‘Maria’ any news on the maple syrup situation in the country that you live in, Canada, having chosen to leave Hungary? The EU is the main export market for Canadian Maple Syrup outside of the US. As a Canadian patriot, you should be aware of that.