Peter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said NATO is grappling with “serious dilemmas” concerning the war in Ukraine, “especially since member states sharply reject dialogue with Russia, yet Israel is being pressed by half the world to start negotiations with a terrorist organisation to settle the Gaza conflict,”.
Speaking in Washington, DC on the sidelines of a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine council, the foreign minister said Ukraine’s NATO integration would not strengthen but weaken the organisation, adding that “members have different positions on the matter, even if some do not publicly promote them”. Ukraine joining NATO would not strengthen NATO’s image as a defence organisation since the move would “openly trigger the risk of war between NATO and Russia”. “When we Hungarians and our central European friends … joined, it reinforced NATO, its unity and its character as a defence organisation; the same could not be said of Ukraine’s possible entry,” he said, adding that “the greatest care should be taken when talking about Ukraine’s possible membership.”
While Israel is under pressure to have talks with Hamas, “in the case of the Ukraine war, diplomatic ties are cut and channels of communication closed; and if anyone proposes talks they are instantly stigmatised,” Minister Szijjártó said.
“This is so strange and controversial that one cannot help thinking that something is going on in the background that we are not aware of… There could be negotiations in the background, but to cover those up, they will be hysterically reacting to any suggestions aimed at negotiations,” the minister said. He said fresh data showing that trade turnover between the US and Russia had increased by 50 percent in May “raises further doubt”. He said that Russian exports to the US were supported by sales of uranium, “which is interesting because Washington is trying to press Europe to cut its nuclear cooperation with Russia”.
“We will continue to promote dialogue and activise diplomatic channels because the strategy the north-Atlantic and European world have represented for two and a half years seems to have failed entirely,” Szijjártó said. “More and more people are dying in the war” in the wake of the shipments of arms to Ukraine, posing a “brutal risk of escalation”, he said. Szijjártó called for “a different strategy centred around revitalising diplomatic ties and dialogue”.