Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó held talks with the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the parties agreed that precautions and vigilance must be maintained, because the level of coronavirus infection will continue to increase in many countries in the near future.

In a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI following a video conference with Peter Maurer on Thursday, the Minister said the parties had agreed that the approach of the Red Cross and the Hungarian government to handling the global pandemic is similar on several points. “We also agreed that the coronavirus not only has an effect on health, but also has economic effects, which must also be handled. The social effects resulting from the loss of workplaces could be particularly serious in regions that already represented the most security threats to Europe”, the Minister stated.

Mr. Szijjártó highlighted that extremist ideologists could easily spread, and the threat of terrorism could increase, in the situation that has developed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and these could in turn lead to new waves of migration. He added that this situation reinforces Hungary’s standpoint, according to which “assistance must be taken to where the trouble is, instead of bringing the trouble into Europe”. “For this reason, the 919 Hungarian peacekeepers stationed on three continents will continue to perform their duties in destabilised areas, in addition to which we will be continuing to support our African partners in the handling of crisis situations at both national and Visegrád Group level”, Mr. Szijjártó said.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)