"The most important task right now is to save human lives, and to do this, we need an immediate ceasefire and the beginning of peace negotiations, without which there will be no peace in Ukraine", MTI quoted Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó as saying on Monday in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. He was received by his Belarusian counterpart, Sergei Aleinik, with whom he held a joint press conference after the meeting.
The Hungarian minister said that the number of victims of the armed conflict in the neighboring country is constantly increasing, more and more people are forced to flee and more and more families are torn apart.
"So the most important task now is to save human lives (...) And the only way to save people's lives is to end this war," he added, adding that this requires an immediate ceasefire and peace talks. "Here, in my talks with the minister in Minsk, I have repeatedly underlined that we Hungarians are in favor of peace," he said.
He asked Sergei Aleinik “to make sure Belarus does everything possible for peace and everything possible to prevent the prolongation and escalation of the war".
Szijjártó said:
"Obviously we are aware of the international context we are in. It is also clear that after you report that I was here today and discussed the importance of peace with my Belarusian counterpart, I will be attacked by many. My fellow politicians in the West andthe international liberal media will all say how bad it is that I was here today and that I held talks with my Belarusian colleague. I would like to say one thing in response. The Hungarian position has always been clear: the channels of communication must be kept open".
He justified this by saying that if we close the channels of communication, we are giving up hope for peace.
Szijjártó regretted that the rhetoric of war is growing stronger and therefore called again on the international community to focus on peace-building instead of decisions and statements that risk prolonging or escalating the war.
They did not discuss domestic issues, Szijjártó said, but he stressed the importance of ensuring the rights of national minorities and guaranteeing religious freedom, and they also agreed that the Hungarian government would increase the funds for the renovation of the Uspensky Cathedral.
In response to a journalist's question, the Minister reiterated that "we Hungarians believe that the international community should only take steps that will bring the war to an end and avoid any steps that would risk the escalation of this war".
"For example, we Hungarians are not supplying weapons to this war, but at the same time we are carrying out the biggest humanitarian operation in the country's history to help people in a difficult situation," he added.
Belarus’ president Aleksandr Lukashenko won the presidential elections of 9 August, 2020, for the sixth time in a row, with an 80 percent of the votes. This was followed by unprecedented protests, which the authorities at first tried to stop with brutal action, but after seven thousand arrests – and torture in detention – hundreds of wounded, three dead and some strange suicides, the protesters still did not go away, Lukashenko temporarily retreated.
Since then, thousands of people have fled Belarus to seek refuge in neighboring countries such as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine and the Czech Republic.
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