Government: Hungarian position taken seriously in fight against terrorism

Hungary’s position is being taken seriously in the fight against terrorism, the internal security advisor to the prime minister said in New York on Thursday local time on the sidelines of a counter-terrorism conference at the United Nations.

The two-day conference, which started on Thursday, takes stock of the experience gained in inter-state cooperation in the fight against terrorism, György Bakondi told MTI.

“The discussions are now mostly focused on the future and the new types of challenges that demand solutions,” he said.

The advisor insisted that

terrorism is also linked to illegal migration which demands a new approach in counter-terrorism measures.

Commenting on the work of the UN’s Office of Counter-Terrorism set up last year, he said that in addition to sharing the experiences gained from cooperation, Hungary has urged “the preparation of new types of solutions that can also work on the level of the global organisation”. Information exchange and processing should be made even more secure and the effectiveness and security of information channels need to be improved, he added.

“Hungary’s position is being taken seriously, our conclusions are not disputed and Hungary is seen as a partner in future cooperation,” Bakondi said about his informal discussions.

Hungary has a distinct position in the fight against terrorism and despite the fact that “we have serious disputes in matters concerning migration, we participate in all professional forums drafting the UN migration package,” he said.

Hungary has not quit the UN migration package “as the US did” and “we will continue to make efforts as long as there is a chance that the Hungarian position and the basic elements of the Hungarian government’s migration policy can get accepted, and indeed some progress has been made,” he added.

On the sidelines of the conference, Bakondi had a series of bilateral meetings. He met heads of the Finnish and Jordanian delegations, NATO’s ambassador to the UN, a leader of the US delegation, as well as the head of the UN Counter-Terrorism Office.

Concerning the talks, Bakondi said that their subjects were confidential, but added that building bilateral ties was high on the agenda. He also said that

his talks were aimed at gathering information to help the Hungarian government secure protection for the country’s residents with special regard to preventing terrorist activities.

As we wrote before, the United Nations’ Global Compact on Migration plan can be regarded in its current form as an African migration package due to the fact that it “clearly benefits Africa while hurting Europe”, Hungary’s foreign minister said in New York, read more HERE.

Photo: Balázs Béli

Source: MTI