Although the international liberal mainstream has strongly attacked the Hungarian position on many issues, in the most significant cases of recent years, Hungary has been right, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó stated on Monday at the annual meeting of Hungarian ambassadors.
According to the ministry's announcement, at the beginning of his speech, the head of the ministry emphasized that the election results of the governing parties, which broke all previous records, are also an important confirmation of the performance of Hungarian foreign policy, which should encourage even stronger implementation of the current strategy.
As a lesson, he underlined: "in recent years, we had to do our work against serious headwinds, as our government strategy fundamentally goes against the international liberal mainstream. Therefore, we obviously cannot hope for grace and support in this dimension. We don't want it, we don't even need it," he stated.
He emphasized that the Hungarian government has been right in every single important matter in the recent period. "It turned out that our positions and decisions, attacked with elemental force by the mainstream, were the right positions and the right decisions," he said.
As an example, he mentioned the decisive action against immigration, the provision of effective coronavirus vaccinations regardless of the country of origin, investment support instead of aid, and staying out of the war in Ukraine as four critical points.
Péter Szijjártó stated: a foreign policy based on the enforcement of the national interest is a successful foreign policy, it also requires a "large dose of sophistication", but apparently it brings results.
He said that the foreign policy strategy is based on mutual respect, the goal is to build the best possible relations for the development of Hungary.
"We don't send ambassadors anywhere to discuss how things should be done at the station, because we have nothing to do with that," he pointed out, adding that the opposite is also true. "In the future, we will not tolerate it if a representative of another country thinks that he is coming here to teach us about a better or different type of life, because thank you very much, we are not asking for that," he warned.
The minister said that today we are living in an age of crises and dangers, in which we must protect our country from negative effects, but for this, first of all, it is necessary to identify the dangers.
He emphasized the war and its security consequences, stating that Hungary will not continue to supply weapons to Ukraine. He also called the economic downturn resulting from the armed conflict a great challenge, and welcomed the fact that, despite this, the export and investment peak could be reached again this year.
He spoke about energy security and underlined that the government does not know any compromises in this field, there is no international political goal that overrides the responsibility for supplying the country, and it is not even willing to negotiate on Budapest's energy sanctions at the European Union level.
"All the blind-spotting that the western half of Europe has been doing in terms of energy supply is simply not sustainable as winter approaches (...) Sooner or later the shroud will fall, the king will be naked, or there will be heating or there won't be," he said, believing that replacement of Russian imports is not possible in the short or medium term.
He also touched on the fact that the war and the resulting food supply crisis could lead to new waves of migration, and in this case a Brussels policy supporting migration could be tragic.
Finally, he also touched on the "bad European responses", saying that Hungary should speak with the voice of rationality, even if this leads to unworthy political attacks.
Péter Szijjártó emphasized that in order to be successful, the export activities of Hungarian companies and the domestic investments of foreign companies must continue to be supported, the country's energy supply must be ensured, a foreign policy based on sovereign, national decision-making must be pursued, and political stability must be maintained, therefore all kinds of measures must be taken against unfair foreign attack.
"Here in Europe, they are trying to create the communication image that we Hungarians are left alone. On the one hand, this is not true in Europe either (...), moreover, outside of this European and North American communication bubble, the respectability of the Hungarian government and foreign policy within it is clearly at one of the highest levels of all time," he emphasized.
Source: MTI
Featured image: Facebook/Péter Szijjártó
