The threat of an impending third world war is greater than ever, says Hungarian minister in NY

Current security risks “are diverting attention away from the biggest global challenges,” Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said at a meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Council in New York on Monday.

“The world is again being divided into blocs, rendering it almost impossible to see to tasks dedicated to protecting the environment and fighting climate change,” he said. The organisation’s 2015 sustainable development goals “are, unfortunately, now seen in a completely different light.”

Global security in past 80 years, he said, had never confronted dangers as serious as those at present. “The threat of an impending third world war is greater than ever.”

Also, the threat of terrorism around the world was growing, he said. Moreover, “nuclear capabilities are being referred to ever so brazenly and openly,” he added.

“We argue for building connections rather than blocs,” he said, calling on world leaders to “make a rational decision at the last possible minute.”

“If countries of the world, especially the largest and strongest, cannot cooperate in a civilised way, we will not find a resolution to the most burning challenges,” he said.

Szijjártó noted that the meeting focused on issues around water and safe energy supplies, adding that the Hungarian government had made “especially strong commitments” in those two areas with a view to preventing water shortage crises and finding new forms of safe energy.

He noted that Hungarian water management technologies were utilised across the world. “We Hungarians are ready to contribute to efforts to prevent water crises, because we should not forget that if there is a lasting water shortage somewhere in the world, locals there will up and leave.” “To prevent waves of migration we must prevent water-related crises,” he added.

Concerning energy, he said sustainable, long-term energy production was not possible without nuclear plants. Hungary’s Paks upgrade project, once completed by Russians, could reduce the country’s carbon dioxide emissions by an annual 17 million tonnes, he added.

“We hope that the UN will act to put an end to negative discrimination against nuclear energy in the interest of suppling the world’s growing population with safe energy,” he added.