“More and more countries have indicated their reservations with relation to the UN Global Compact for Migration, meaning the number of countries that reject the Compact could increase”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said at his hearing before Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday in Budapest.
Mr. Szijjártó said that the more people read the Global Compact for Migration, the more take it seriously and the more are saying no to it.
“At Wednesday’s vote, at least thirteen countries are expected to reject the document, including the countries of the Visegrád Group, Bulgaria, Latvia and Austria, in addition to the United States, Israel, Australia, Dominica and Brazil”, he said.
“Hungary will also be saying no to the Compact’s ‘little brother’, the Global Compact on Refugees”, Mr. Szijjártó stressed, adding that the Compact “would open a back door” for migrants to arrive in Europe.
With relation to Hungary’s support of Transcarpathian Hungarian, the Minister underlined: “No amount of international pressure or geopolitical interest will force us to sacrifice cross-border Hungarian communities on its altar”.
He said Hungary’s western allies are placing “extraordinary pressure” on Hungary to give up its position on the issue and withdraw its veto of Ukraine’s integration process in NATO.
“Hungary will however be maintaining its standpoint until Ukraine puts a stop to its anti-Hungarian government policies”, he declared, adding that the current Ukrainian administration is not expected to do so.
“I don’t care what the Russians think about this issue”, he declared.
With relation to the economic reinforcement of Hungarian communities in neighbouring countries, the Minister said: These communities could be the sources of cooperation with the given country, and also national political resources.
“Hungarians living in these territories are receiving over 60 billion forints (EUR 185 million) in economic development funding; the largest amount, 38 billion forints (EUR 117) has been received by Vojvodina”, Mr. Szijjártó added.
On the subject of national policy, the Minister said he stands by the decision to strive for cooperation with neighbouring countries despite disputed issues, so that cooperation can provide confidence for resolving conflicts, adding that in his opinion this policy has already achieved results. Mr. Szijjártó also spoke about the fact that Hungary’s economic export record is expected to be broken again this year and could exceed last year’s record of over 100 billion euros by 5 percent. Hungarian investments are also expected to set a new record, exceeding 4 billion euros, and technology-intensive investments have also increased significantly.
“The Hungarian economy is going through a change of dimension, with increasingly high added value investments arriving in the country. It is partly thanks to this that more people came home to Hungary last year that went abroad to work, which the job fairs being held by our foreign representations are also facilitating”, Mr. Szijjártó told the Committee.
“We have come to an agreement with Gazprom on the quantity and price of natural gas shipments for 2019, and have also agreed on the schedule for negotiations concerning 2020 shipments”, the Minister said with relation to energy. “It has been proven that the question of energy security will always be a hot potato in Central Europe”, he stressed, adding: “We must keep all of our pokers in the fire to maintain the country’s energy security”.
“We must negotiate with everybody, and here too we must not bow to pressure aimed at excluding any possible source of energy”, he said, adding: “whether or not diversification sources are realised does not depend on Hungary”. “What is currently happening with relation to Central European energy policy is taking the whole Central European region for a fool”, he stated.
“Together with Gazprom, which has been declared ‘the devil incarnate’, Western Europe’s largest energy corporations are constructing a multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline from Russia to Western Europe avoiding Ukraine within the framework of the largest European energy project of recent decades”, he pointed out.
The Minister said that in his opinion the project only differs from the previously rejected South Stream pipeline with relation to the fact that Central European SMEs would also have been involved in the construction of the latter, while the new project is being constructed by the largest Western European companies.
“And despite this, we are the ones being declared Russian spies”, he said, declaring: “A certain deceitfulness can be perceived in international politics with relation to the assessment of Russia. We are being told that relations with Russia have never been so bad”.
The Minister also reported on Hungary’s “eastern and western successes”: Hungary was one of the three guests of honour at China’s first international import expo, while in the west, Hungary is being acknowledged for its policy of protecting Christian communities. “Our NATO activities are also being clearly acknowledged”, he said, explaining that Hungary will be sending a further 60 military personnel to Kosovo to reinforce the 390 already present, and will also be increasing its contingent in Afghanistan by a further forty soldiers.
The Minister said the United States is Hungary’s number one export market outside the European Union, explaining that in his opinion hysteria against President Donald Trump is being artificially generated in Western Europe, in which Hungary has never taken part and has always striven to maintain a balanced position.
(MTI)
