Hungarian FM Szijjártó: What is happening now shows that we were right
Hungary is ready for the “new age of global reality” and ready to do its fair share when it comes to making the world a better place again, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in New York on Tuesday.
The foreign ministry cited Szijjártó as telling an open debate at the United Nations’ Security Council meeting that the outcome of the US presidential election had changed “basically everything”, and the old Western world now had a new leader carrying out “a patriotic and sovereigntist strategy”, standing on the basis of common sense and going against “woke ideology and launching a freedom fight against the global dictatorship of the international liberal mainstream”.
He added that the Hungarian government had been doing this for the last 15 years by carrying out a conservative, Christian, pro-peace and anti-migration political strategy for which it had been under “tremendous attacks”.
He said “woke ideology” and the international liberal mainstream had poisoned international politics and international relations. He added that international politics had been totally lacking mutual respect, and “what we had instead was stigmatisation, lecturing and blackmailing”. “Therefore the last years have become the age of dangers and conflicts,” he said.
Szijjártó said that Hungarians had been living in the neighbourhood and the shadow of the war in Ukraine “which has put a lot of challenges ahead of us and caused a lot of harm and losses to our country”. “And we have to tell you that the international liberal mainstream has fuelled this conflict by stigmatising and attacking all of those who had been speaking in favour of peace,” he said.
“Therefore a special appreciation should go to those countries that have kept the pro-peace camp alive regardless of the tough circumstances,” he said, and cited China which established the Friends of Peace group during the last general assembly of the UN. Szijjártó said the US presidential election had brought “tremendous changes” in this case as well, with the election of a “pro-peace president”, adding that there was now greater hope than ever for the peaceful resolution of the war in Ukraine.
He welcomed the direct highest possible-level meetings that started today between the US and Russia. “We have been representing this position for three years, to keep the channels of communication open, to look for diplomatic solutions, to keep the ties with the Russian Federation,” he said. “For this we have been under tremendous attacks in international politics.”
“We have been saying that there’s no solution in the battlefield … the only solution comes around the negotiating table,” Szijjártó said. “And what is happening now shows that we were right.” “We wish all the best for the US and the Russian Federation for the direct negotiations,” he said. “We hope that today’s meetings succeeded and we hope for a successful summit sometime in the near future. A good American-Russian relationship is good news to the world as well.”
He said Hungary was ready for the “new age of global reality” and ready to do its fair share when it came to making the world a better place again. Szijjártó also said the UN should adjust itself to the new global political reality, otherwise it would lose its significance. He expressed regret that “during the global dictatorship of the international liberal mainstream”, the UN had failed to be the platform for peace.
“Therefore the leaders should get out of their comfort zones, out of the ivory tower and come forward with innovative proposals for reforms, on how to eliminate the function overlaps and eliminate useless functions, how to cut costs and how to increase the effectiveness,” he said. He added that Hungary would be happy to host more UN organisations.
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