Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said attacks by pro-war European politicians would give further encouragement to the Hungarian government to continue its peace mission.
Minister Szijjártó told an open debate at the UN Security Council in New York that Hungary had been living in the shadow of war for two and a half years and had been confronted with the direct consequences of the war. He said that over the past ten years, he had participated in a number of meetings in the EU where they discussed the issue of armed conflicts far away from Europe, and the European position had always been to urge the parties to look for a diplomatic solution. Now with a war going on in Europe, not only was the position totally different but if someone used the word “peace” and the word “negotiation” they were stigmatised and called a “spy or Trojan horse”, he said. “It is not only unacceptable but scandalous that a country is being stigmatised in the 21st century just because of arguing in favour of a diplomatic solution, just because of using channels of communication to talk to those with whom there might be a lack of common understanding on major issues,” he said. “We want peace instead of war. And only peace will make Europe great again,” he added.