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It’s always better for Hungary if the US and Russia engage in direct talks, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in a Facebook post on Monday.
“Our history is proof of that; we’ve always lost out in conflicts between the East and West,” Szijjártó said.
Earlier in a conference call, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken briefed the foreign ministers of the Visegrad Group and Baltic states, as well as Bulgaria and Romania, about talks between Russia and the US held on Dec. 30.
Wishing the resumption of high-level talks in January the greatest success, the minister said Hungary will be sending top diplomats to the NATO-Russia Council meeting.
At the same time, Szijjártó said Blinken and his central European counterparts should take note that just as Hungary was about to resume sending natural gas to Ukraine, the Ukrainian president submitted a bill that would bar Hungarian leaders in Transcarpathia from holding office.
“Should this legislation pass in parliament, Hungary’s possibilities in supporting Ukraine would be severely limited,” he said.
Featured photo by Lajos Soós/MTI