Hungary and the region has a vested economic and national security interest in pragmatic cooperation between East and West based on mutual respect and advantages, the ministry quoted the foreign minister as saying. That project has been up in the air since the end of 2021, along with Eurasian cooperation, a sound baseline for cooperation up to then, he said. To reverse that process, “mutual respect will [need to] return into international politics — unfortunately, we have seen a total lack of mutual respect. Second, everyone should understand that physical realities cannot be overridden either by political approach or by ideology … Communication channels will have to be kept open between those who are not very happy to talk to each other,” he said. Regarding globalisation, Szijjártó said international powers had used it to “aggressively spread their political narratives” worldwide, and stigmatised non-mainstream opinions in the process.