“Though the international liberal mainstream has been aggressively attacking Hungarian standpoints on many issues, our country has been right over and over again,” announced Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó on Monday at the Hungarian ambassadors annual meeting.
According to the ministry’s briefing, the Foreign Minister emphasized that,
the record-breaking election win for the governing parties is also a significant confirmation of Hungarian foreign policy and should encourage an even stronger implementation of the strategy utilized thus far.
He pointed out an important lesson: “In the past few years we had to fend off continuous attacks as our governing strategy goes against the foundations of the international liberal mainstream. Thus, we obviously cannot hope for any form of mercy or support. But we do not even want it anyways, nor do we need it.”
He highlighted that in the recent past, Hungary has been right on every significant issue.
“It turns out that our positions and decisions that were relentlessly attacked by the mainstream were the right positions and decisions,”
– he said. He mentioned four key examples: Hungary’s decisive action against migration, effective procural of coronavirus vaccines regardless of the source, investment support instead of aid, and staying out of the war in Ukraine.
Péter Szijjártó declared that a foreign policy based on enforcing national interests is a successful foreign policy; it also requires a great deal of wit but clearly, it brings results. He expressed that their foreign policy approach is based on mutual respect and the goal is to build the best possible relations for the development of Hungary.
“We do not send ambassadors anywhere with the purpose of intervening into domestic affairs, to try and tell others how to do things because that has nothing to do with us,” – he stated, adding that this also goes the other way around. “Going forward we will continue to not tolerate representatives of other countries who come here to tell us how to do things better or teach us a different way of life. No thanks, we do not want any of that,” he warned.
The Foreign Minister said that we are experiencing an age of crises and dangers and we must strive to protect our country from the negative impact; to do this, it is necessary to identify all threats.
He highlighted the war and its associated security risks, confirming that Hungary will continue to abstain from transporting weapons to Ukraine. He also cited the economic downturn caused by the war as a big challenge but welcomed the fact that, despite this, the export and investment peak was surpassed once more this year.
The Foreign Minister discussed energy security and underlined that the government will make no compromises in this arena: “There is no international political angle that would override the responsibility of keeping Hungary running.”
“Within the European Union, Budapest is not even willing to debate energy sanctions. This whole show that Europe’s Western half has been putting on concerning energy is simply not sustainable as winter approaches. Sooner or later, the shroud will fall and we will see that the emperor has no clothes – or rather that either you have heating or you do not,”
said the Foreign Minister. He believes that replacing Russian imports is not possible in the short nor the medium term.
He also mentioned that the war and consequential food supply crisis could cause increased migration; in this case, Brussels’ pro-migration policy could be tragic.
Finally, he addressed the bad responses from Europe – saying that Hungary must be the voice of reason, even if this leads to unwarranted political attacks.
Péter Szijjártó emphasized that in order to succeed, Hungary must do the following: continue to support export activities of our companies and domestic investments from foreign companies, ensure our energy supply, base our foreign policy on sovereign, national decision-making, and maintain political stability. That is why we must counter every unfair attack from foreign parties.
“Here in Europe, they are trying to communicate that we Hungarians are standing on our own. But this is not true in Europe and moreover, outside of the European and North American communications bubble, respect for the Hungarian government and our foreign policy is clearly at an all-time high,”
– he stated.
Photo: Péter Szijjártó (Photo CRedit: MTI/ Szilárd Koszticsák)
