Aiding persecuted Christians ‘could be point of connection’ in Hungary-US ties, says official
Aiding persecuted Christians could be a point of connection between Hungary and the US, Tristan Azbej, the state secretary responsible for aiding persecuted Christians, told public current affairs channel M1 on Friday.
Azbej said Hungary’s hope that the election of Donald Trump would usher in a “golden era of Hungary-US relations” had come true.
The visit of Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and his ministerial-level meetings to Washington, DC and New York “showed openness, positive dialogue and joint thinking,” as did the approach to the Hungary Helps programme and the issue of support for persecuted Christians, he said.
Azbej said that the first Trump administration and Hungary’s government had agreed that international development and aid should serve causes such as helping persecuted Christians and stopping migration by taking help where it is needed, he said. The Biden government then stopped helping cooperation between USAID and Hungary Helps, electing to support “the spreading of woke [ideology], leftist propaganda media in Hungary and leftist campaigns, severely violating Hungary’s sovereignty.”
Azbej said that at talks with Pete Marocco, who is leading the review of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Marocco pledged to immediately stop all support that interfered with Hungarian sovereignty.
Reports in the opposition press that the first Trump administration had supported the Hungary Helps programme and that US funding had been instrumental in starting the Hungarian programme for aiding persecuted Christian were “fake news”, Azbej said.
Hungary’s government had been the first in the world to decide to aid Christians suffering from persecution worldwide, “and it was surprising — almost surreal — that the US started supporting groups in Iraq, taking a leaf from the Hungary Helps programme,” he said.
The state secretary said the US did not provide financial support for Hungary Helps. At the same time, talks have opened up an opportunity for USAID and Hungary Helps to support persecuted Christians together, in Africa, the Middle East or elsewhere in the world, he said.
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