Hungary FM: If we enlarge NATO, why not the EU?

Enlargement is the only way to strengthen Europe, according to Hungarian FM Peter Szijjarto.

Szijjártó Péter az észak-macedón külügyminiszterrel tárgyalt Fotó: Kovács Attila

Hungary supports strengthening the role of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in peace-building as the last channel for East-West dialogue, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said in Budapest on Thursday. Speaking at a joint press conference with North Macedonian Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani, a country that currently holds the OSCE Chairmanship, FM Szijjarto  underlined that maintaining dialogue between the parties is the only way to achieve peace in Ukraine.

We, Hungarians, who live in the neighborhood of war, want peace, and we want it as soon as possible,

he said. “Every day that passes in wartime brings more death and destruction. The propaganda that better conditions for a peace agreement can be reached on the battlefield is false. The conditions for peace are much better today than they will be tomorrow, and they are much worse today than they were yesterday," he stressed. The Hungarian government therefore strongly supports the North Macedonian Chairmanship in ensuring that the OSCE continues to serve as a channel of communication between East and West, Russia and the Western half of Europe, Mr Szijjarto added.

The Hungarian government supports all efforts to strengthen the role of the OSCE in peace-building,

he stated. FM Szijjarto called for the opening of real EU accession talks for Albania and North Macedonia. He argued that Europe faced extraordinary economic and security challenges, so stability and peace in the Western Balkans had never been more important. „We who live in the neighborhood of the Western Balkans understand and appreciate this situation perhaps better than anyone else,” he pointed out. He said the EU now had a greater need for enlargement than the Western Balkans had a need for the EU „because the bloc is unfortunately weak and is getting weaker.”

We can only reverse this if the European Union begins to grow, because if it becomes larger, it will also be stronger, and this can only happen through enlargement,

he said.

The reason for the failure of further enlargement so far, he added, was that neither Brussels nor some member states were honest on this matter, because in public they supported the process but behind closed doors they made more skeptical statements. „That is why it is unacceptable to us that the president of the European Council wants to postpone the date of admitting new members until 2030,” he said. The minister asked what the EU wanted to do in those seven years.

If NATO, which is a defense alliance, was able to include three Western Balkan countries, I think the European Union should be able to follow suit,

he said. „At every meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, I listen to the lamentations of others that the Russians, the Turks, and I don’t know who else are gaining ground for themselves in the Western Balkans. It would be easy to counter this by, for example, admitting them to the European Union,” he concluded. Answering questions, Szijjarto confirmed that the government was indeed planning to buy Budapest Airport and that negotiations were underway, but that it would be too early to disclose details. He said the ownership of Hungary's largest airport was a strategic issue. On the ratification of Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership, he said it was a legitimate question for debate that the admission of the two countries would make the border between Russia and NATO several hundred kilometers longer, but nevertheless the government had submitted a proposal to parliament for approval of the ratification.

Cover photo: Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto (left) receives his North Macedonian counterpart Bujar Osmani in his office on September 7, 2023 (Photo: MTI/Attila Kovacs)