Szijjártó: Hungary has right to voice opinion on US presidential election

Budapest, July 28 (MTI) – Hungary has no intention of interfering in the US presidential election, as it is an internal affair of the American people, but “we have a right to voice our opinion on foreign policy matters,” Hungary’s foreign minister said on Thursday.

The US presidential election has reached an interesting phase with the nominating conventions, where it became clear what the two major parties think about foreign policy and immigration, Péter Szijjártó said, answering a question at a press conference.

The Democrats’ immigration policy plan “is completely against our interests, while the Republican presidential nominee’s views on immigration are in line with ours,” the minister said.

Szijjártó said Hungary supports Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s position that European members of NATO should fulfill their membership obligations to spend at least 2 percent of their GDP on defence. Hungary is committed to its NATO membership, Szijjártó insisted.

He said Hungary is one of the many European NATO member states whose defence spending has so far failed to reach the 2 percent target, but added that the country has a plan in place to gradually increase its defence budget to a level that is in line with its NATO obligations.

Szijjártó also reiterated that Hungary will remain neutral in the US presidential election. “We don’t support any candidate, we’re not US citizens so it would be completely irrelevant if we supported anybody anyway. We aren’t backing anyone because it [the election] is none of our business.”

Photo:MTI

Source: MTI