The document was initiated by the United States and co-authored by Hungary, Israel, Georgia, North Macedonia, and Argentina.Continue reading
The US administration is 100 percent open to reviewing and lifting the retaliatory measures against Hungary taken during the previous administration, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in Washington on Tuesday after talks with his US counterpart, Marco Rubio.
Péter Szijjártó announced that they also discussed bilateral economic cooperation and reviewed the measures taken in the last weeks and days of the previous administration under President Joe Biden, that “were clearly taken with the intention of political revenge in order to harm Hungary and then harm future Hungarian-American relations.”
“There are the sanctions measures against Hungarian energy security, whether in the field of natural gas or nuclear energy, but there is also the sanctioning of Minister Rogán,” he listed.
We have initiated the necessary legal processes in all three cases, and today the Secretary of State has assured us of his absolute openness to put these retaliatory measures behind us as soon as possible.”
Mr. Szijjártó pointed out that they had also touched on investment cooperation, and stressed that the Biden administration’s cancellation of the agreement on the avoidance of double taxation harmed the interests of US companies that now employ more than 100,000 people in Hungary. He underlined that this decision was made in response to Hungary’s refusal to join the global minimum tax, which Donald Trump is also opposed to.
Today, the Secretary of State also registered the importance of renegotiating and implementing this double taxation agreement,”
he emphasized.
During the meeting, the parties also discussed the war in Ukraine. Mr. Szijjártó highlighted that despite all the conflicts and difficulties, the US administration insists on its position that the war in Ukraine cannot continue, which is good news for Hungary. He said that his colleague sees peace talks as the only realistic way to end the killing.
The Secretary of State also informed us that the United States has temporarily suspended military assistance to Ukraine. And I informed him that there is a plot against Donald Trump and his peace plan in Europe, especially in the West,”
he continued. As for this week’s special EU summit on Ukraine, he reiterated that Hungary would not agree to any decision that would risk continuing the war.
Szijjártó also referred to the excellent cooperation within the UN, recalling that Hungary was the only EU Member State to support the US peace resolution. “In Europe, of course, we have been snubbed, but the constant chatter about who is to blame and who is the aggressor is not helpful. This has been going on for three years and it has not helped. We need something new, we need peace talks, and that is why we supported the US peace resolution at the UN, that was then adopted by the Security Council,” he underlined.
At the meeting, the Foreign Minister thanked the US for the closure of USAID (United States Agency for International Development) funds, which he said were the basis of the US foreign policy of interference in the internal affairs of other states, and which “has been the cause of the suffering of the world for four years under the Democratic administration.” Szijjártó also said that he was accompanied on his visit by the new government commissioner responsible for investigating the use of USAID funds in Hungary for political influence. “He will be conducting several meetings here in the United States in the coming period to shed light on who and how these funds were used for interference,” he emphasized.
Via MTI, Featured photo via MTI/KKM