German Foreign Minister’s Outburst Brings Tensions to the Surface

There has reportedly been a measured but tense exchange of opinions between German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) and her Hungarian counterpart Péter Szijjártó (Fidesz) during a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.

According to reports, the German Green politician took issue with Hungary’s refusal to sign a new 500 million euro military aid package from the European Peace Facility (EPF) to Ukraine. The Hungarian side argues that the EPF was designed to finance the strengthening of EU member-state’s defense capabilities, instead of being used to send weapons to a war-zone in a non-EU state. The main reasons behind the refusal though is Kiev’s inclusion of Hungary’s largest bank, OTP on a list of sponsors of the Russian invasion.

During the meeting behind closed doors, citing unspecified reports, Baerbock had reportedly snapped at the Hungarian delegation accusing OTP of recognizing the Russian-occupied territories of Luhansk and Donetsk, and of providing credit for Russian soldiers, thus indicating her acceptance of the narrative, according to which the Hungarian bank is indeed a “war sponsor”. It is unknown what fact she had based her opinion on as there is no communication from OTP’s part recognizing Russia’s rule over any occupied territories.

On the contrary, Péter Szijjártó had reminded her colleague that

the financial institution had “expressed its support for Ukraine publicly”, it is in full compliance with the EU’s sanctions policy, and therefore Baerbock’s reasoning is “incorrect”.

In fact OTP Ukraine’s own website states that “OTP Bank and OTP Leasing also provided material support for Ukraine’s defenders, hospitals, and orphanages for the whole amount of more than UAH 1 Mio. OTP Bank has already purchased government bonds for over UAH 5.5 bln to finance government expenditures. We, OTP Bank Ukraine, will continue to do everything possible for the Victory of Ukraine!”

One diplomat had reportedly expressed confusion over why Hungary has taken issue with its bank being on a list of “war sponsors”, as this has no legal bearing. However, being included on such a list does in fact damage the reputation and image of any company and may affect investor attitudes to wards the institution.

Baerbock’s surprising accusations show the German government’s serious over-reliance on Ukrainian sources as far as the narrative on the dispute between Budapest and Kiev is concerned. The dispute also highlight’s the EU’s ongoing tone-deafness to Hungarian complaints about systemic violations of the rights of the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia (West-Ukraine). The recent row over Ukrainian claims that EC President Ursula von der Leyen had advised the government in Kiev to close the tap on the Druzhba oil pipeline to Hungary had further strengthened the impression that both Berlin and Brussels condone the hostility that the government of Volodymyr Zelensky had shown in recent years towards Budapest.

Featured Image: Facebook Annalena Baerbock