EU member states can abstain from voting on a particular action without blocking it, and Péter Szijjártó said on the sidelines of a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council that “the price” of Hungary’s agreement not to block the top-up was a change in the rules to exempt Hungary from involvement in financing arms deliveries. “This means that we have to pay our share of 50 million euros, but we can determine the purpose of its use,” he stated. He added that several important goals could be discussed in light of this, such as strengthening the stability of the Sahel region with a view to combatting migration and supporting the Western Balkans. Szijjártó lamented that EU leaders “did not grasp that the EU’s Ukraine strategy has failed.” The cause of that reluctance could be that such a recognition could bring up the issue of taking responsibility for the damages Europe has incurred.”
Referring to statements made earlier in the week concerning the possibility of deploying European troops to Ukraine, he appealed to western European politicians to abstain from making such statements.