“The training of staff at the Information Office must always reflect new circumstances, and accordingly it must be modified”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Thursday at the inauguration of the Information Office’s new training centre.

In a recording supplied to Hungarian news agency MTI, Mr. Szijjártó said: “It is still impossible to see the precise consequences of the coronavirus epidemic, but what is certain is that nothing will be like it was before: a new political world order is coming about and a new global economic competition is commencing, which is increasing the significance of civil intelligence and transforming its tasks”. He said that in his opinion: “It is evident that competition within the global economy and competition between countries for investments will be increasing, and the power rankings will be influenced to a significant level by to what degree countries have been able to protect jobs and create the most new workplaces”.

From among changes to everyday life, the Minister said that in his opinion the most noticeable change is that, as a result of digitalisation and the lockdown caused by the epidemic, the role of personal meetings is being increasingly replaced by online forms of contact. “As a result, the danger of cyberattacks is increasing significantly, and for this reason cyber security has never before been as important as it will be during the upcoming years”, he stated. “Much greater attention must be paid to preventing cyberattacks and discovering plans for attacks in the upcoming period”, he emphasised. “It is in the national interests of the Hungarian people for NATO to gain strength, and to this end Hungary is continuously increasing its contribution”, he added.

Mr. Szijjártó also spoke about the fact that in the upcoming period countries that effectively enforce their national interests will be the ones to gain strength, and accordingly Hungary must look at everything from its own perspective. “It must be accepted that all nations view the world from a different perspective, but this cannot be the cause of hostility, or make cooperation impossible”, he highlighted.

According to the Hungarian Foreign Minister, it is clear that no country can allow strategic sectors that seem less important in times of peace to become vulnerable to “external stakeholders” to such an extent. “For this reason, we must develop our own capacities within these sectors, and in Hungary, for instance, the government has begun to develop the production of the equipment necessary for health protection”, Mr. Szijjártó said.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade / MTI)