Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told Harici: “We have problems with the bureaucrats in Brussels because they absolutely cannot accept that a country can also represent its national interests. They want to be a superstate for the country, a federal conglomerate”.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto answers our questions on his country’s relations with Turkey, NATO, the European Union and its position on the Russia-Ukraine war.
Turkey and Hungary have upgraded their relations to an enhanced strategic partnership. They also signed cooperation agreements in the defense industry and nuclear energy. What do you think are the factors that bring the two countries closer to each other?
Mutual respect and mutual trust… These are two phenomenon which are unfortunately missing nowadays or lacking from international politics. A lot of countries are using international political arena for bashing, criticizing, attacking, judging and accusing each other. We look at it differently. For us, it is extremely important to listen to each other, to understand the position of the others. So, our bilateral relationship has always been characterized by this kind of approach. And the fact that we have been respecting and trusting each other gave us the chance to expand our cooperation of strategic importance including gas deliveries, including nuclear cooperation and hopefully including the cooperation between TPAO and our national oil company in the future.
Turkey and Hungary are seen as NATO outliers. Do you agree with this view and can the two countries strengthen their defense ties outside NATO?
We are very respected and very reliable allies both. Considering us as not respected or not reliable within NATO is a simple lie which we have to reject. Both Türkiye and Hungary add to the security of the alliance. We are among both. We are among the very few countries in NATO which have complied with their commitments, namely spending at least 2% of GDP on defence spending.
How do you see Ukraine’s NATO membership?
Ukraine’s NATO membership is obviously impossible. We should not import war into NATO because if we do it, it means that NATO would be at war. If NATO is at war with the Russian Federation. And that would mean the outbreak of 3rd World War. We definitely do not support such kind of an idea to allow Ukraine to join NATO.
What was the reason for the delays in approving Sweden’s accession to NATO?
When it comes to Sweden’s accession, I was very crystal clear. The members of our parliament have had to be pointed by Swedish politicians in multiple occasions. They were judging, criticizing, accusing Hungary; considering us as not being democratic, which is a no-go. We reject that. So, members of parliament expected the government to rebuild the trust between the two countries. Once we were successful in that, the accession of Sweden was ratified.
Türkiye had a background deal regarding the F-16 sale to Türkiye during the bargain for Sweden’s NATO accession. Did Hungary such a thing behind during the approval of Sweden’s bid?
Well, actually we had to rebuild the trust. That was in the background. And parallelly rebuilding the trust, we were able to extend our security cooperation with the Swedish, which has had to rebuild the trust obviously. So, I think the negotiations ended up well because the extended security cooperation between Sweden and Hungary contributes to the security of both countries and NATO as well.
How are EU sanctions perceived in Budapest? Is it possible for Hungary to leave the European Union?
Obviously, it’s not possible. We are part of the European Union. We will remain to be part of the EU. We want the EU to be strong.
But the EU is pointing Hungary so often.
Indeed, they are obviously. We will be participating in these debates in the future as well. We don’t have problem with the European Union itself. We have problems with the bureaucrats in Brussels, because the bureaucrats in Brussels are absolutely not able to accept the fact that a country may represent its own national interests as well. And they cannot accept a country stands up for its own values, heritage and culture. The bureaucrats in Brussels want to be a super-state, a federal conglomerate to the country to that. We want the EU to be an integration of strong member states with the necessary competencies and sticking to heritage, culture, religion and history. So, we’ll take in the debates in the EU on how to reform the EU in a way that it will be more competitive and more successful.
Your country has perhaps taken the most restrained approach to the Russia-Ukraine conflict in Europe. What do you make of Western Europe’s calls for escalation?
Look, we are a neighboring country to Ukraine. There is a Hungarian community in Ukraine. So, we are absolutely interested in peace to come. Therefore, we have not delivered any weapons and we are absolutely against sending troops to Ukraine. We are considering those statements which bring the risk of escalation as very dangerous. We do hope that no one will make any steps in the future which would ring this conflict towards escalation.
What is your expectation from the outcome of this war?
We understand that European leaders are suffering from a war-psyche. The only way that this war can be ended is President Trump’s winning in the United States. If President wins, then, we do believe that this can be made very quickly.
Is it because Trump is well-going with President Putin?
No. It’s because President Trump is a strong leader. He has a very good track-record in namely during his term no war was broken out.
