Szijjártó: Hungary will not host more NATO troops
Hungary will not receive additional NATO troops on its territory as part of maneuvers related to the crisis in Ukraine, said Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade. To Euronews.
The United States has sent additional troops to Poland and Romania, while Germany has reinforced the team in Lithuania – NATO troops are already stationed in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Poland. However, Péter Szijjártó said that no more troops would arrive on Hungarian soil.
“No, we have not agreed and we will not agree, because there are already NATO troops in the country, which is the Hungarian army and armed forces, which are in a good condition to ensure the security of the country. So we don’t need more troops in Hungary ”.
Said the Foreign Minister. Russia has deployed troops near Ukraine’s border and the U.S. has warned it is preparing for an invasion. Moscow has repeatedly denied the allegations.
In an interview, Szijjártó called on the United States, Europe and Russia to continue negotiations to avoid a “worst case scenario” for the Ukrainian crisis, stressing that Central Europe will be the biggest loser in the outbreak of a conflict.
As he said, the current crisis evokes memories of the Cold War and the “many decades we suffered”.
“That’s why we don’t want those times to come back. We urge the international community to do everything in its power to ensure that the Cold War does not return, and even that the psyche of the Cold War does not return, because we have learned from history, unfortunately very clearly, that when there is an East-West conflict, the Middle East -European countries are losing and we don’t want to be losers anymore “
– He told. “We need to invest in diplomacy, we need to invest in dialogue. That is why we are asking the Russian Federation and the Western allies, the big ones, the strong countries, not to give up a peaceful settlement, on the contrary, to talk to each other, because I will stress once and for all how difficult it can be for Central European countries to be violent. actions will take place ” He added.
Washington and European capitals have warned Moscow that any military intervention in Ukraine would have “massive” consequences for Russia, including punitive economic sanctions. However, Szijjártó believed that this type of measure “does not work”, pointing out that Russia has been subject to Western sanctions since 2014, when the Crimea was illegally annexed, and began to support separatists in eastern Ukraine.
“If we look at the sanctions themselves, they have failed. They don’t work. They failed ”
– he continued, adding that “trade between Germany and the Russian Federation has increased since the sanctions came into force”. These EU sanctions restrict the access of certain Russian banks and companies to the primary and secondary capital markets; prohibit Russian financial institutions from receiving financial support and intermediation; and prohibit the indirect import, export or transfer of any defense-related material.
EU sanctions, all of which must be approved, have been constantly renewed since 2014. They were last extended in January.
“My analysis is that if we are to impose additional sanctions, we need to be honest about the effects of the sanctions that are already in place.”
– He told. Viktor Orbán told reporters at a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week that EU sanctions “did more harm to Hungary than to Russia.”
(Our special picture: Photo: Péter Szijjártó’s Facebook page)