Trump's election would be good for the global situation and for Hungarian-American relations, Szijjártó says

Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, who has been participating in the UN General Assembly in New York, spoke with ATV's Egyenes Beszéd on Tuesday. The host, Györgyi Szöllősi asked the minister about the United Nations, the government's peace mission, Hungary’s planned military assistance in Chad and the US presidential election.

Szijjártó said that the UN was not founded as a "group of likeminded countries", but with the goal of "allowing everyone to talk about everything", even those who hate each other. The minister said the main objective of the international organisation is dialogue. "So nobody should try to force things on others", he said.

Speaking about the war between Russia and Ukraine, the Foreign Minister said that "The solution to wars is not on the battlefield, but at the negotiating table". He said that the arms deliveries have not led to a Ukrainian victory and have not changed the realities on the battlefield, but are instead prolonging the suffering and the war. That is why the first priority is to start peace talks, because that is the way to saving lives.

According to Szijjártó, since neither Russia nor Ukraine have shown any willingness to negotiate so far, they must be pressured from outside. He added that only Donald Trump is capable of doing this, so we should be rooting for his victory in the November presidential elections.

When asked what would happen if Kamala Harris were to win, the Foreign Minister said that they always respect the will of the electorate and that in such a case they would try to establish the best possible relationship with the US administration. He added that in the case of Joe Biden, it was not because of the Hungarian government that the relationship turned out the way it did. In the interview, Szijjártó stressed that politics is a matter of experience: in his opinion, the Hungarian government isn't rooting for Donald Trump "because of its taste", but because under his presidency security was at a much higher level, and Trump's election would also be good for the global situation and for Hungarian-American relations.

The host then asked why Hungary is sending military assistance to Chad while working on “the peace mission” regarding the war in Ukraine. Szijjártó argued that while the war between Russia and Ukraine is a war between two states, the military assistance they are sending to the Sahel region is to combat terrorist organisations. According to Szijjártó, these organisations are destabilising the situation there, which then triggers illegal migration towards Europe. This is why providing military assistance in the region is in Hungary's interest too. Here again, the Foreign Minister also stressed that the Hungarian government is "not going to take a gamble" and will not send soldiers to Ukraine.

"I see many people have time to come up with very complicated conspiracy theories. I suggest they work a bit more, and then they will have less time to think up such nonsense", Szijjártó said in response to the suggestion that the mission in Chad could also be connected to Russia's strengthening of its presence in the region. And he found the suggestion that Gáspár Orbán's (PM Viktor Orbán's son) contacts might have played a part in launching the mission in the African country a bit hurtful, as it was he who had personally negotiated in Chad.

The matter of the National Card programme was also brought up with the Foreign Minister. As previously reported, a decree was issued following Viktor Orbán's visit to Moscow about broadening the National Card scheme, which allows foreigners to work in Hungary, adding Belarusian and Russian citizens to the list. Since the announcement, parts of the media and several representatives of the European Union have voiced concerns that the Hungarian decree could allow Russian spies to infiltrate Europe.

According to Szijjártó, the EU's accusations that Hungary has opened the back door to Russian agents with the move are nonsense and blatant lies. The Foreign Minister said that while the EU is talking about tightening the visa regime, last year EU member states issued 40,000 more visas to Belarusian guest workers, 60 percent of which were issued by Germany. According to him, EU member states issued a total of 280,000 visas to citizens of Belarus, of which only 270 were issued by Hungary.

The Foreign Minister also said that there has been no relaxation in the rules on entry, and that the National Card scheme is only valid for employment. He said that 10 Russians and 4 Belarusians have received National Cards since the introduction of the simplified procedure.

Regarding a report in the New York Times that a Hungarian company was involved in last week's operation against Hezbollah as an Israeli shell company, Szijjártó said that there is a huge fake news campaign going on, which he finds distasteful. He stressed that Hungary was not involved in any way in the delivery of lethal devices, and that it was nothing more than a conspiracy theory. He stressed that the Hungarian secret services are investigating the case, but so far there has been no evidence of any operational activity by the authorites of another country on the territory of Hungary.