Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed his support for Hungary's initiative at the Friends of Peace meeting.Continue reading
The establishment of the UN (United Nations) Friends of Peace group was severely criticized at the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting, but Hungary continues to strongly support the initiative, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Luxembourg on Monday.
The Minister explained at a press conference following the meeting: “I was expecting that there would be some personal attacks, but I see that, as we were not the only EU Member State, but we attended the inaugural meeting in New York together with France, everyone tried to round off the discussion. Consequently, the Friends of Peace group was generally criticized. Some people even said that ‘we have to fight the Friends of Peace group,'” which the Minister described as outrageous.
Hungary continues to strongly support the establishment of the group at the UN and is ready to participate in its joint work, he added.
We believe that the declaration adopted by this group, saying that territorial integrity, sovereignty, and the UN Charter must be respected, remedies all the criticisms that our European friends have previously made in this regard,”
he emphasized.
Péter Szijjártó also pointed out that there was once again strong pressure to disburse six billion euros from the European Peace Facility to Member States supplying arms to Ukraine. “We will continue to refuse this,” he stressed. The politician also explained that Josep Borrell Fontelles, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, had made a proposal to put this on a voluntary basis.
Josep Borrell during a press conference following the Foreign Affairs Council meeting. Photo: MTI/Bodnár Boglárka
Szijjártó welcomed this and said that Hungary has long insisted that no state should be forced into a decision in which it does not want to participate.
“I informed the High Representative that we were in favor of a switch to a voluntary basis, and he said that from now on Hungary could no longer be accused of not making payments from the European Peace Facility. He happened to be right; after a long time we were able to agree on something,” concluded Szijjártó.
Via MTI, Featured image: Facebook/Szijjártó Péter