Szijjarto: Hungarian troops to participate in training Kurdish fighters against IS

New York (MTI) – The Hungarian troops serving in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq will participate in training the Kurdish Peshmerga forces to fight the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told MTI in New York City on Tuesday.

The minister spoke following the UN summit on combatting IS militants. The Hungarian delegation at the summit was led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

“Unfortunately the Islamic State is conquering more and more territories, more and more people are forced to leave their homes because of their atrocities. Therefore if we truly intend to ease the migration pressure on Europe, then we must step up our efforts against the Islamic State,” Szijjarto said.

“Hungary is prepared to do so, and therefore our contingent of 110 soldiers, who are already in Kurdistan, will from now on take part in training Kurdish Peshmerga fighters alongside their security and protection tasks,” he said.

“If we cannot find a fast solution to pushing back IS, we must expect that migration pressure on Europe’s borders will remain, as one of its causes is IS gaining territory,” he said.

Earlier in the day Szijjarto attended a conference of The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. He said enforcing the treaty at the soonest would be an important contribution towards global security.

“Unfortunately, we are not there yet. Forty-four countries with major nuclear programmes must ratify the treaty. Eight of them, including the US, China, Israel and Pakistan, have not yet done so,” he said.

As the organisation’s co-president Hungary in the past two years has been tasked with persuading as many countries of joining as possible. Hungary has focused on Africa in these efforts. Angola and Congo have since joined the treaty.

On another subject, Szijjarto said Hungary on Tuesday assured Croatian president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic of its support for the Adriatic-Baltic-Black Sea initiative to be launched with 12 countries. The group, in Hungary’s view, should build north-south energy transport and road and rail infrastructure in Central Europe. It should also play a role in forming a unified digital market to enhance the region’s global competitiveness, Szijjarto said.

Asked about the government’s migration policy and how these were presented to UN representatives in New York, Szijjarto said Hungary wants not just Europe, but the whole world to take on the burdens of mass migration, as there had been politicial decisions with global players involved which have led to the growth of migration in these proportions.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters