Szijjártó: Russia is not a threat to any NATO member state

In an interview during his visit to Croatia on Monday, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said that

"Russia does not represent a security threat to any NATO member state".

Szijjártó disagrees on this with several Western military leaders, the most recent of whom was the Danish Defence Minister, who said that he considered it a possibility that Russia would attack a NATO member state within the next few years. The Hungarian Foreign Minister sees it differently: "Why would they do that? NATO is much stronger than Russia. Why would anyone attack someone much stronger than themselves? What would be the point?" – he told the Croatian news agency, HINA, according to RTV's report.

Szijjártó was visiting the Croatian town of Petrinja, where he inaugurated a school that was renovated with an almost 22 million euro contribution from the Hungarian state after an earthquake hit the area at the end of 2020.

On EU enlargement, the Foreign Minister said that the project would remain incomplete until all the Western Balkan states had become members.

Szijjártó said that Serbia could be ready for EU membership tomorrow, and added that without Serbia, the largest and strongest country in the Western Balkans, there would be no stability in the region.

As regards Hungary's interest in the stability of the Western Balkans, he stressed that the Hungarian government is opposed to the EU imposing sanctions against the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Milorad Dodik. According to Szijjártó, European sanctions have never proven effective anywhere, "and sanctioning a democratically elected leader makes no sense anyways, as it only makes the situation worse". He added that the President of Republika Srpska is firmly committed to his country's European path.

For more than 20 years, Milorad Dodik has repeatedly stated that Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state is dysfunctional and that Republika Srpska must become independent. Polls have shown that while the Bosniaks and Croats living in the country would be happy to join the EU and NATO, with 69 per cent of Bosniaks and 77 percent of Croats welcoming the idea of joining the military alliance – only 8 percent of Serbs approve of this direction. The majority of Bosnian Serbs reject a Western orientation and would basically prefer destabilizing the current functioning of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It is well known that Milorad Dodik has a very good friendship with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Over the past few years, the Hungarian government has been providing substantial aid to the Bosnian Serbs, having previously approved a 110-million euro loan through Eximbank under very cheap terms.