At the meeting of the foreign ministers, Annalena Baerbock was enraged by the Hungarian protest against the listing of the OTP bank and the response, who - without quoting sources or checking the facts - also began to attack the OTP because the bank "recognizes the Russian sovereignty over the Donetsk and Luhansk territories, and provides to Russian soldiers".

At the foreign affairs meeting on Monday, at which the eleventh sanctions package and the new military aid to be sent to Ukraine were on the agenda in Brussels, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó once again made the Hungarian government's position clear: Hungary's blocking of a new offer of 500 million euros from the European Peace Framework will remain in place until Ukraine does not delete the OTP from the list of "international war sponsors".

Péter Szijjártó pointed out that

5.7 billion euros have already been spent from the peace framework to finance the arms deliveries to Ukraine, and although according to our country's point of view this represents a danger of escalation, the government has so far not made payments impossible, but this time it will not give in to the pressure until the OTP case is resolved. 

According to Politico's information, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock reacted most sharply to Péter Szijjártó's words, who - without quoting sources or checking the facts - also began to attack the OTP because the bank "recognizes Russian sovereignty over the Donetsk and Luhansk territories and provides loans to Russian soldiers ".

Hungary rejects the baseless criticism in the strongest possible terms, pointing out that OTP's company in Ukraine has supported Ukraine in the war effort from the very beginning, and any statements to the contrary are nothing but lies..

It is also clear from the announcement of the Ukrainian management of OTP Bank: the information about the recognition of the occupied territories and the preferential loans granted to the Russian army is incorrect! At the same time, the OTP Group publicly supports Ukraine, strongly condemns the war, and provides financial support to the defenders of Ukraine, hospitals and orphanages.

Baerbock appeared to be the only one to intervene in the debate in a way that repeated the negative Ukrainian narrative, the other participants rather argued to the Hungarian Foreign Minister that Hungary should separate the concerns related to the listing from the approval of military aid and sanctions for Ukraine. There was also a diplomat who described the Ukrainian listing as meaningless, saying: it has no legal significance. (You are right about this, however, the credibility of the bank can be greatly undermined by the Ukrainian disinformation campaign based on heightened emotional reactions.)

In any case, Josep Borrell, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, took the matter seriously and - unlike Baerbock - wants to smooth out the contradictions and possible misunderstandings through diplomatic means, so he definitely turns to Kiev to ensure that Ukraine (once the OTP case is resolved) can get access to the next military aid package .

Source: Mandarin

Featured image: AFP