For the second time in a few days, Szijjártó in talks with Lavrov again

On Thursday, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó held talks with the Foreign Ministers of both Russia and the Vatican at the meeting of the Foreign Ministers' Council of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Malta. Thursday's meeting came just days after Szijjártó's visit to Moscow. Due to the sanctions in place against him, this was the Russian foreign minister's first visit to an EU member state since Russia launched its attack on Ukraine.

The Hungarian peace mission continues – Szijjártó wrote on his Facebook page in a post following his meeting with Lavrov on Thursday. He added that in order to ensure that "nothing irreversible happens before Donald Trump takes office on 20 January, everything must be done to keep the channels of communication open, and the OSCE is the last suitable platform for this."

As previously reported, during Monday's meeting in Moscow, Lavrov spent 10 minutes slamming the EU and NATO to the visible fidgeting Szijjártó, and also spoke about double standards and the Russian people's human rights. The Russian Foreign Minister also said that anyone who speaks out against peace fails to represent the interests of their own people, and added that he saw a similar attitude to Viktor Orbán's peace mission from China, South Africa and several Arab countries.

In a written message sent to Telex following the publication of our article about Monday's meeting between the two politicians, Foreign Affairs spokesman Máté Paczolay said that “the two foreign ministers have a friendly relationship, so their talks are always conducted in a fair manner, even if they disagree on certain issues. There is also nothing new in them having different views on the European Union and NATO. After the public part of the meeting, the discussion mainly focused on ways to build peace and Sergey Lavrov was not dismissive of peace efforts.”

Szijjártó also held talks with the Vatican's Foreign Minister Paul Richard Gallagher on Thursday. After the meeting, he wrote that Hungary appreciated the Vatican's wise, pro-peace stance. "Archbishop Gallagher previously spoke of the courage of peace, and we also all agree that negotiation is not a sign of weakness but of courage. Archbishop Gallagher has encouraged us to continue our efforts to save lives, to build peace, and to keep the lines of communication open," the Hungarian Foreign Minister said.

He also noted that Christian communities are being persecuted in many parts of the world and this must be stopped. He expressed particular concern about the atrocities committed against Christians in Aleppo. "Hungary will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to protect Christian communities in difficult situations," Szijjártó said.