The position taken by NATO on the war in Ukraine remains aligned with Hungary’s national interests, namely that everything must be done to prevent the conflict from spreading beyond Ukraine’s borders, the foreign minister said.
Addressing a press conference during a break in an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Berlin on Sunday, Péter Szijjártó said that as a neighbouring country to Ukraine, what mattered most to Hungary was that the conflict did not spread beyond Ukraine’s borders. Everyone in NATO “knows that Hungary is on the side of peace” and as a neighbour to Ukraine is in a “special situation”, Szijjártó said. He underlined that NATO is a defence alliance, “and our most important duty and interest is protecting Hungary and the Hungarian people”. The position that everything must be done to prevent direct conflict between NATO and Russia also enjoys broad support, he said. On the topic of sanctions, Szijjártó said it was “pointless” to impose sanctions that “hurt us more than the country we would impose them on”. Concerning Finland’s and Sweden’s bids to join NATO, he said Hungary had always backed the alliance’s “open door policy”, adding, at the same time, that the position expressed by Turkey should also be taken into consideration.