After his working lunch with his Austrian colleague, Alexander Schallenberg, the head of the ministry emphasized that the consequences of the armed conflict are getting tougher, and that there are new serious proposals on the agenda in Brussels, which expect further sacrifices from the European people, while they would not bring us one centimeter closer to peace.
He underlined: the planned eleventh sanctions package goes completely against common sense, as the previous ten also failed. At the same time, he welcomed the fact that, although some people have not given up yet, it has been possible to prevent restrictions on the nuclear industry for the time being.
He also expressed serious concern that the EU would implement measures against eight Chinese companies, which, in his words, would "certainly poison, perhaps even make impossible" the relationship with China, and a kind of negative spiral could develop from the responses.
„After cutting the threads of cooperation between the European Union and Russia practically one by one, we would consider it extremely harmful (...) if the same thing started with cutting the fabric of European-Chinese cooperation”
he said.
He then added that China's gross domestic product (GDP) has now exceeded that of the EU, so the continent would certainly lose out in rivalry, so cooperation would be needed instead.
„Hungary is an excellent example of how much can be gained from cultured cooperation with China”
he thought.
Péter Szijjártó also touched on the proposal according to which another half a billion euros would be transferred from the European Peace Framework to arms deliveries to Ukraine, which, contrary to the name of the financial fund, would mostly increase the risk of escalation.
„They expect us to absorb more economic damage, meanwhile Ukraine is behaving more and more hostile towards Hungary, hostile decisions and measures are being taken, and now serious threats have been made in recent days"
he declared.
It is interesting that at this time the Brussels institutions, which are so sensitive to European Union unity and European solidarity, including the European Commission, and the Western European member states that constantly put the importance of European solidarity and unity on their flags, seem to turn a deaf ear, he added.
Regarding the objectionable steps, he emphasized that the schools of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia will cease to exist in their current form from September.
„We have been pointing out this problem for years in all existing decision-making forums, nowhere are they willing to deal with it seriously, with the exception of a few exceptions, the international institutions and actors of international politics turn a blind eye to it”
he announced.
He recalled that in a scandalous and unacceptable manner, Ukraine placed the OTP, which did not violate any legislation, on the list of international sponsors of the war. In addition, as he pointed out, the news broke out in recent days that the Ukrainian president was planning to blow up the Barátság oil pipeline, which also supplies our country, which would clearly attack Hungary's sovereignty.
„I think it is right to feel that this is enough now (…) I would like to make it clear that as long as Ukraine keeps the OTP on the list of international sponsors of the war, Hungary cannot agree to decisions that would require new economic and financial sacrifices from the European Union and its member states”
he stated.
The minister made it known: therefore, we cannot support the allocation of another half a billion euros from the European peace framework for arms deliveries to Ukraine as long as we do not give it the green light as long as the OTP is on this particular list in Ukraine, and the same is the case with the sanctions, which are obviously new would represent an economic sacrifice for Europe, as long as the Ukrainians include the OTP in this particular list, it is very difficult to talk about Hungary giving the green light to this in relation to sanctions.
„Now, not to mention that we see a very serious risk in terms of sanctions in the inclusion of Chinese companies, because this would make the cooperation between the European Union and China so deeply impossible or difficult that it is completely against the interests of Europe”
- He told.
And I would also like to make it clear that the issue of national minorities is not a bilateral issue. The protection of the rights of national minorities is a European issue, since European rules and international rules protect national minorities, he added.
„It is therefore obvious that the Ukrainians will only be able to move forward in the European Union accession negotiations if they guarantee that the Hungarian people will get back the rights they already had”
he warned.
MTI
