“Europe’s interests must be considered as the starting point of relations between the EU and Russia; it is important that a pragmatic dialogue based on common sense and mutual respect is again established between the parties”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Monday at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

At a press conference following the meeting’s morning session, Mr. Szijjártó said that in addition to re-establishing dialogue it is also important to the EU that peace should be restored in Ukraine and that we maintain the possibility of establishing comprehensive economic and trade cooperation “all the way from Lisbon to Vladivostok”.

“Certain Central European countries simply cannot afford not to speak with Russia (…) everyone must accept that direct relations with Russia are absolutely necessary and extremely important to us”, the Minister stressed.

According to Mr. Szijjártó, we must recognise that EU sanctions against Moscow are having an extremely negative effect not only on the Russian economy, but also on that of Ukraine and several other EU member states including Hungary. In addition, global challenges can be faced more easily if we cooperate with the Russians, he added.

With relation to the Minsk Agreement, the Hungarian Foreign Minister emphasised that we have still not made any progress with regard to compliance, but “it must be clear that this is the responsibility of both parties”. “It takes two to tango”: both parties must comply with their obligations, he said.

In the interests of maintaining European unity it is important that decisions on Russian sanctions should not be made “under the table” and should be preceded by a high level political debate. The European Union must accept that common decisions affect member states to different extents; Hungary for instance has suffered losses of some 4.5 billion US Dollars as a result of the sanctions imposed against Russia. And finally, whether or not a country can or cannot speak with Russia must not be dependent on its size; we must also do away with double standards in this area, Mr. Szijjártó told reporters.

Hungary’s chief diplomat also spoke about another important topic of the meeting of foreign ministers: Iran. The nuclear agreement is a huge success that clearly indicates the strength of multilateral diplomacy, he declared, adding that it is in Europe’s interests for stability to be established in the Near East as soon as possible, and Teheran could play a key role in this process.

EU foreign ministers discussed the crisis in Libya during a working lunch, following which the meeting’s afternoon session will focus on the situation in the Near East.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)