War in Ukraine: Hungarian Foreign Minister calls for peace talks

Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s foreign minister, has called on the warring sides to start talks on putting an end to the war in Ukraine.

“As we are no longer in the eleventh but in the twelfth hour, the war in Ukraine should be ended as soon as possible. For this reason, the sides involved should use the week of the UN General Assembly session for launching genuine negotiations,” the minister told MTI in New York.

Commenting on Russia’s partial mobilisation, Szijjártó said all steps escalating the conflict are bad news and all steps that bring peace closer are good ones. As Ukraine’s neighbour, Hungary faces the negative effects of war directly, and has therefore a vested interest in the earliest possible resolution of the conflict so as to prevent greater trouble, he said.

“We would like to call the attention of all for the need to put an end to the war. We should use the opportunity of this week’s UN General Assembly, the United Nations, which was set up as a forum for discussing even the toughest global issues,” he said.

“We, in Ukraine’s neighbourhood, cannot say anything else but that we want peace and call on the major world policy players to finally negotiate with each other, reach a ceasefire agreement, and finally start talks that can bring peace and put an end to the totally senseless suffering of tens or hundreds of thousands, and even millions of people,” Szijjártó said.

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The minister noted that over the past few months Turkey had proved to be the single successful mediator by paving the way for relaunching grain deliveries that somewhat mitigated the world food crisis.

Based on this achievement, the Turkish government would perhaps have a chance for mediation between the warring sides, Szijjártó said, adding that East-West conflicts are always bad news for central Europe.

Speaking about his packed programme, the minister said that although the war in Ukraine was still in the focus in New York, one should not forget that the world is facing a number of other challenges, such as violations of national minority rights.

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Szijjártó said that he had attended a high-level meeting concerning the Declaration on Minority Rights.

This issue is all the more important for Hungary as millions of ethnic Hungarians are living beyond the country’s borders, he said. “We insist that Hungarians living anywhere in the world should be able to preserve their national identity, language and rights, Szijjártó said, adding that the United Nations should take firm action against violations of minority rights.

“In terms of the rights of national communities there is no room for compromise,” he said.

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Source: MTI