“Hungary regards the fact that Washington has introduced sanctions against two Turkish ministries and three Turkish ministers in response to the Turkish offensive in north-eastern Syria to be an American-Turkish issue”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told reporters on Tuesday in Baku, Azerbaijan, where he held bilateral talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on the sidelines of a session of the Turkic Council.

“We are naturally always concerned if the NATO member state with the strongest military is in some kind of confrontation with the NATO member that has the organisation’s second strongest military”, Mr Szijjártó said, stressing: “As a NATO member state, Hungary has an interest in the military alliance being strong and unified, and for the fewest possible internal tensions to manifest themselves”. “Accordingly, it is in Hungary’s interests for the Americans and the Turks to be able to resolve this relationship of theirs, but this is an American-Turkish issue, which Hungary has nothing to do with”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade declared.

(MTI)