The pressure of immigration continues to pose a security risk to the future of the European Union and the European continent, and Hungary will therefore initiate that NATO should assume a role in countering the immigration crisis not only at Member State level, but also as a military alliance as a whole, Péter Szijjártó stated.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told Hungarian journalists before the two-day Brussels meeting of the Foreign Ministers of NATO Member States: as the European Union still has not found a common solution, and has likewise failed to address the causes, Hungary will propose an emphatic NATO role in the struggle against migration in two areas.

On the one hand, the military alliance should directly take part in the training of the Iraqi security forces so that the Iraqi forces themselves should be able to secure the country’s peace after the much anticipated recapture of Mosul (under the control of the terrorist organisation Islamic State) and the departure of the international forces. Efforts must be made to ensure that no further terrorist organisations should come into being, and that the country may finally embark on a path of construction and development.

On the other hand, the North Atlantic Alliance should assume a greater role in stopping the flow of immigration by means of its navy units in the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade said. The same as the EU, NATO should be more effective, and should achieve tangible results in the fight against organised people smuggling which takes advantage of the flow of migration heading from Africa, the Middle-East and Turkey towards Europe, he added.

Mr Szijjártó said: it seems quite evident that president-elect Donald Trump will seek to assign a much greater role to the military organisation in the fight against terrorism. Hungary agrees with this, and takes the view that NATO as an alliance should take part in the global struggle against organised terrorism, he stressed.

While there is opposition on the part of some Member States, the Hungarian proposal is on the agenda, the Minister added. Mr Szijjártó stressed that there is a greater need for reinforcing NATO’s „European leg” now more than ever. Europe cannot wait for America to defend it in every instance; Europe itself, too, should do something for its own security.

Hungary supports any proposals that set out similar objectives as well as the coordination of the strategies of NATO and the European Union in order to avoid any overlaps, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade added.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)