“A political agreement has been reached concerning the fact that the countries of the Visegrád Group will each be sending a contingent of soldiers to the Baltic in three-month shifts beginning in 2017 within the framework of measures aimed at increasing NATOs presence in the region”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told Hungarian news agency MTI by telephone on Friday from Jūrmala, Latvia, where he is attending a summit of foreign ministers from the Visegrád Group (V4), Baltic and Scandinavian countries.
The Minister also told the press that this would mean 150 soldiers at a time from each country, including Hungary, would be stationed in the Baltic region.
“This one-year military presence on the part of the V4 countries clearly indicates our solidarity with the countries of the Baltic”, Mr. Szijjártó emphasised, adding that the chiefs of staff of the countries involved would begin planning the details after which the plan would be put before the their Ministers of Defence and all outstanding issues must be clarified prior to the NATO summit in Warsaw this summer.
Included on the agenda of Friday’s meeting of V4, Baltic and Scandinavian foreign ministers was security cooperation within NATO, cooperation with Russia and the European Union’s Eastern Partnership programme, Mr. Szijjártó reported.
With relation to NATO expansion, Mr. Szijjártó said there was agreement on the fact that the perspective of expansion must be maintained, but that the Hungarian standpoint on the issue was more determined, adding that in his opinion further expansion was also of key importance with relation to maintaining NATPs credibility.
“If NATO does not provide positive feedback to Georgia and Macedonia, then Europe will be brining trouble upon itself”, Mr. Szijjártó stressed, explaining that without positive feedback these countries could become destabilised, which would be wrong from the point of view of Europe’s security. The Hungarian Foreign Minister stressed that Hungary is also pushing for the European Union to afford visa-free travel to Georgian and Ukrainian citizens as rapidly as possible.
With relation to the existing sanctions against Russia, Mr. Szijjártó said opinions on the matter were “diffuse”, but he felt there was “large amount of hypocrisy” concerning the issue. Mr. Szijjártó pointed out that Russia’s largest energy company Gazprom was cooperating with Europe’s largest energy company on the North Stream gas pipeline and French President Francois Hollande had invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit Paris.
“We must have an honest, open and detailed debate [on the issue]. We in no way support the automatic, ‘under-the-table’ extension of sanctions”, Mr. Szijjártó declared.
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)
