Szijjarto said in response to a question at a joint press conference with Israeli counterpart Gideon Sa'ar that responsibility for steadily deteriorating Hungary-Ukraine ties clearly and exclusively lay with Kyiv.

He cited the fact it was not Hungary that had taken away rights from ethnic Ukrainians living in the country, rather Ukraine had been continually curtailing the rights of ethnic Hungarians living there.

"How could relations be improved? For instance, if Ukraine returned all the minority rights they took away from ethnic Hungarians. It solely depends on this. If the anti-corruption regulation could be restored within a minute as a result of pressure from Europe, then the minority rights could also be returned in the same length of time," he said.

"The problem is that whereas the situation of corruption in Ukraine's state administration was, for some reason, more important to the European Union, they are not at all interested in the fate of ethnic Hungarians," he said.

"The EU enlargement commissioner even told me this face to face in Copenhagen, and she let it slip in concrete terms that that for them corruption was a more important issue than minority rights."

Szijjarto said he remained a supporter of continual dialogue, and Sybiha would visit Hungary this week, "if all goes well".

"I am ready to discuss all these matters for the umpteenth time with him. Over the past 11 years, I have met four different Ukrainian foreign ministers dozens of times," he said. "I always told them what we wanted and, every time, the opposite happened," he added. "But that's how diplomacy and foreign policy work, so let's try again."

Commenting on French domestic politics, he warned of "a very dangerous process from the point of view of democracy", adding that "constant attempts are being made in Europe to get rid of patriotic politicians by political, legal and sometimes even physical means."

"They tried to kill the Slovak prime minister, the former Czech prime minister was beaten up during the campaign, and protests financed from abroad have been under way in Serbia for several months," he said.

"They have mobilised the entire institutional system in Brussels against us in order to set up a puppet government here," he added.

"An international witch hunt has been under way against the president of Bosnia's Republika Srpska," he said. "The most popular candidate has been banned from running at the election in France," he added. "In Germany they are trying to keep away from the political system one of the most popular parties, if not the most popular. That's what's happening in Europe these days," he said.

Meanwhile, Szijjarto: US President has not sent message to Hungary re Russian oil purchases

Contrary to press reports, US President Donald Trump has not sent a message to Hungary about halting Russian oil purchases or even a similar message, the foreign minister said on Monday.

"Obviously, there has been no such message, not even a similar one," Peter Szijjarto said in an interview in the Fight Hour podcast.

"What's happening is that pro-war Brusselite politicians attempt to cut even the last energy cooperation ties between Europe and Russia. Clearly, the main loser from this is Europe ... Europe's economy has started weakening and the main reason is that the model of European economic growth has been destroyed," Szijjarto said.

He added that there were two groups of European states, one that bad-mouthed Russia and even those that bought crude oil from Russia, yet they were doing the same secretly, through Asian intermediaries. The other group consisted of Hungary and Slovakia that were buying Russian crude oil openly, not secretly, in a way determined by the infrastructure, he added.

He said two crude oil pipelines entered Hungary, one from the direction of Russia and the other from Croatia. However, the capacity of the latter was less than the combined demand of Hungary and Slovakia, so it would be physically impossible to supply the two countries solely from that pipeline, he added.

"As a result of the infrastructure and physical reality, Hungary can only operate securely from the point of energy if the Druzhba pipeline operates," he said. "The pipeline from Croatia is excellent as an auxiliary pipeline but it is insufficient in itself to supply Hungary and Slovakia," he added.

Commenting on reports about potential further US restrictions in sanctions against Russia, he said all moves that point towards an escalation of the war were bad news for Hungary.

MTI Stock Photo - for illustrative purposes only


Source: MTI – Hungary’s national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent.

Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all narratives within the local media.

XpatLoop believes in empowering readers to form their own views through complete and comprehensive coverage. To facilitate this XpatLoop has a balanced range of news partners, as you can see when you surf around XpatLoop.com

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