Speaking to journalists yesterday on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto was emphatic that his country would not participate in NATO’s proxy war in its neighbor Ukraine against Russia. “NATO has come closer to war, and we don’t want NATO to be closer to war than before, so we [Hungary] have made it very clear that we will not participate in such kind of actions,” Szijjarto said. “We will not participate in weapon deliveries, we will not participate in training [Ukrainian troops], we will not participate in financing. That’s a very open position of ours, which we have been representing from the very beginning of this issue,” said Szijjarto, whose country is an EU and NATO member.
He warned that as long as hostilities continue, the threat of a major escalation will grow “each day…. Peace needs to be achieved as soon as possible. Peace talks need to start, and a ceasefire has to be achieved now,” TASS quoted him as saying. “It is absolutely obvious that the war cannot be resolved with arms. The sooner negotiations start, the fewer people will die.”
Szijjarto also confirmed to TASS that Hungary will participate in Switzerland’s so-called peace conference on Ukraine, in his position as foreign minister because Budapest respects the Swiss efforts toward peace."The reason for our representation is that we are absolutely in favor of peace so we participate in all events where peace is on the agenda,” he explained. However, he despaired that Russia had been disinvited to the on June 15-16 event, saying, “We do think that a real outcome can be expected if everybody is around the table.”
