“2019 has provided several pieces of evidence regarding the fact that Hungarian foreign policy has successfully achieved its designated targets, and that the instruments we have chosen to achieve these goals have proven to be effective”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said at Tuesday’s session of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

At his annual hearing before the Committee, Mr. Szijjártó highlighted: “The issue of immigration remains in first place on the agenda of European politics, and there is continuous pressure being placed on countries that, in opposition to the European mainstream, are retaining the right to decide for themselves who they allow onto their territory and who they want to coexist with”. “The idea of a mandatory resettlement quota has still not disappeared completely, and thoughts with relation to this are being raised continuously”, he said. The Minister said it is an important achievement that the country has succeeded in defending itself and that “we have not bowed to the application of pressure”.

The Foreign Minister said major forces have been mobilised in New York in the interests of making the UN Global Compact for Migration part of international law. “Hungary is one of the countries that voted no to the Compact, but there are major efforts to nevertheless make the document a point of reference of international law in parts”, he pointed out.

“The migration situation at Europe’s southern borders is continuously increasing, and it is in our interests for the focus of international political efforts to change, and that instead of inspiring further waves of immigration they help people to return home or to remain at home”, he emphasised.

“Hungary is a middle-sized Central European country that is surrounded by major powers, and accordingly the goal is for none of these major powers to have a conflicting interest with relation to our success”, he told the Committee. “We have succeeded in achieving this: the reconstruction of Hungarian-American relations has begun, the German Chancellor and the Russian and Turkish Presidents have all visited Hungary, and the Prime Minister is in regular consultation with the French President”, he added. “Hungarian foreign policy decisions are exclusively made on the basis of Hungarian national interests”, he declared.

“The Visegrád Group (V4) remains the closest and most successful alliance within the EU, and has successfully represented its joint position in European debates”, he also stated, adding that “economic relations have also improved and the commitment of the countries of the V4 to maintaining this effective alliance is clear”.

With relation to supporting cross-border Hungarians, he said the cabinet had decided to enter into cooperation with the countries involved in the interests of achieving joint success, so that disputed issued might also be discussed with a greater chance of success. “Hungarian national communities must be asked with relation to what they would like to receive assistance from the government, and it was also in this spirit that the economic development programmes were launched”, the Minister indicated.

Concerning economic achievements, Mr. Szijjártó said: “The Hungarian economy is once again setting a new national economy history export record in view of the fact that Hungarian exports have increased by 4 percent during the first nine months of this year”. “The investment record will also be broken this year because more investment had already arrived in Hungary than during the whole of last year: 1400 billion forints (EUR 4.16 billion) in investment arrived within the framework of the investment promotion system until mid-November”.

On the subject of energy security, the Minister told the committee that this is the area in which the government is facing the greatest level of hypocrisy. “None of our allies have completed their tasks to enable Hungary to diversify its natural gas supply”, he said, adding: “The gas storage facilities are already full, and accordingly we are already negotiating with relation to next winter”.

The Foreign Minister said the greatest diplomatic success was the fact that on Monday the EU’s council of foreign minister decided to accept the list of candidates for the new European Commission. “Accordingly, despite all the ‘trickery’, the Commissioner for Enlargement is being delegated by the Hungarian government. This is one of the most important European policies, and it is via the Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement that the EU maintains contact with the countries in its vicinity”, he explained.

Mr. Szijjártó also reported on the fact that Hungary has opened 23 new diplomatic representations since the end of last year, which are partly facilitating the life of the local Hungarian community, and partly providing assistance with relation to economic efforts. “In comparison to the country’s size and economic power, the network of foreign representations is enabling the suitable representation of the interests of Hungarians and the provision of assistance to enable them to suitably represent and enforce Hungarian interests”, he stated.

Several MPs enquired about the situation in Ukraine, with relation to which the Foreign Minister said: “It depends exclusively on the political will of the Ukrainian leadership whether they make the required changes to enable the Hungarian national community to regain the rights that have been taken away from them”. “All we are asking is that they restore the previous state of affairs”, he declared. Mr. Szijjártó also mentioned that Romania’s re-elected President did not speak our when he had the opportunity to take action with relation to the Hungarian community as a handler of difficult situations. “We hope that things will be different now”, he noted.

(MTI)