According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, only peace can be the solution to "all aspects of the tragic situation" that arose as a result of the war in Ukraine. Péter Szijjártó spoke about this in Esztergom, on Saturday's closing day of the MCC Festival organized by the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), which was broadcast live on the Foreign Minister's Facebook page.

The head of Hungarian diplomacy saw that the war fundamentally determines the domestic and foreign political maneuvering space of all countries, including Hungary. He stated: Hungary condemns the military aggression and "stands by the side" of the victim, as well as stands up for the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

He said: at the same time, the Hungarian government has the greatest responsibility towards the Hungarian people, so it must definitely prevent the country from drifting into war. The cabinet cannot even allow the Hungarians to pay the price of the war, he added.

According to Péter Szijjártó, the relationship with the Russians must be maintained in this situation, among other things, because Russia is a reality in Central Europe, and the cutting of communication channels hinders the possibility of a diplomatic settlement. He believed that only a Russian-American agreement could guarantee the end of the war in the long run.

The head of the ministry defined the energy supply as a "hard physical reality" instead of an ideological-philosophical issue. He said that Hungary accounts for 8.5 billion cubic meters of Europe's annual natural gas demand of 170 billion cubic meters. The acquisition of this amount is unthinkable without taking into account Russian energy sources, he stated.

Péter Szijjártó addressed his words to the opposition journalists who accused him of being pro-Russian .

The foreign minister also said that the current capacity of Hungarian gas reservoirs is 30 percent, which is better than the European average, but the cabinet must ensure the procurement of an additional 732 million cubic meters of gas.

He also stated that "Hungary will not have a problem with natural gas supply during the winter".

The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also touched on the fact that Hungary receives 89 percent of the contracted gas volume, thanks to the fact that three quarters of it comes from Serbia and only a quarter from Austria. According to his words, Hungary receives "every single molecule" from the south.

During the conversation, Péter Szijjártó criticized the European Union's sanctions policy, saying that it harms European countries more than Russia. He repeated: instead of sanctions, the EU should focus on peace, and then welcomed the fact that the American and Russian foreign ministers had spoken to each other in the past few days.

The minister also criticized the idea of ​​changing unanimous decision-making to majority in the EU's common foreign policy.

To the suggestion that Hungary does not support the introduction of the global minimum tax, it responded by introducing it

"Europe would destroy its own continental economy and take away Hungary's competitive advantage, and then he argued that tax policy is a national competence, the curtailment of which "we cannot allow".

Regarding Transcarpathia, Péter Szijjártó stated that the case of previous Ukrainian decisions, which adversely affected the Hungarian communities there and were disputed by Hungary, was closed due to the war. According to Péter Szijjártó, Hungary should continue to support Transcarpathia, as well as the whole of Ukraine. He reminded that 860,000 Ukrainian war refugees have arrived in the country so far in the largest humanitarian operation in Hungary's history. The head of ministry also praised the good cooperation with the governor of Transcarpathia, Viktor Mikita.

Speaking about Hungarian-American relations, he assessed that Hungary's relationship with the United States is qualitatively different when it has a Republican president. Bilateral relations were at their best under the presidency of Donald Trump, he said, indicating that due to the Republican congressional majority expected in the mid-term elections in America, a new timeline will begin in bilateral relations from November.

At the same time, Péter Szijjártó asked David Pressman, the candidate for the United States ambassador to Hungary, about the statements he made at the Senate hearing that democracy is declining in Hungary.

Source: 888.hu

Featured image: Hungarian Nation