Szijjarto: NATO ‘war psychosis’ risks conflict escalation

“All that was said in the meeting reflected that an peace is needed as soon as possible; the situation on the battlefield clearly shows that the number of casualties and destruction will dramatically increase without a rapid diplomatic settlement,” the foreign ministry quoted Szijjarto as saying after a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council.

“Operations on the battlefield are clearly intensifying, with ever more serious consequences; all efforts should now focus on establishing peace in order to save lives and prevent further destruction,” the minister said. It was “bad news”, he added, that his position was “in minority within NATO”.

He quoted a participant in the meeting as saying that “the goal is not to achieve peace but to win the war.” “NATO is more or less characterised by that kind of war psychosis … most spoke today about how to increase weapons shipments to Ukraine,” he added.

Szijjarto said putting together such shipments was becoming more and more problematic, partly because many NATO member states “have already contributed nearly all the ammunitions in their reserves.” He noted that currently Hungary and the Czech Republic provide air policing in Slovakia because “Bratislava has given all their aircraft to Kyiv and they have not received new ones yet”.

It was also suggested that “warehouses should be emptied and all equipment handed over to Ukraine… Desperate remarks like that clearly show that mounting difficulties are an obstacle to arms shipments,” Szijjarto said. Those difficulties “are not just physical, not least because few weapons are left, but also because sending arms has proven futile in terms of the original goals,” he said.

“So far we have heard from the countries sending arms that those weapons would help Ukraine to battlefield victories … but this is not happening,” he said.

Hungary opposes boosting NATO’s coordination role in sending arms to Ukraine and training Ukrainian soldiers, “and will not participate in planning or in the activities themselves; neither will it contribute to financing,” Szijjarto said.

Szijjarto: Hungary proud member of world’s strongest defence alliance

Hungary is a “proud and reliable” member of the world’s strongest defence alliance, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Thursday, pledging that Hungary wanted to continue to contribute to the security of the Euro-Atlantic community.

Speaking at a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the foundation of NATO in Brussels, Szijjarto said Hungary’s NATO membership “is a coronation of the desire and struggle for freedom of generations of Hungarians,” according to a statement issued by his ministry.

Twenty-five years ago, in 1999, Hungary was able to re-join “the community of free and sovereign nations of the Euro-Atlantic world, where we always belonged at heart … but forty years of communist oppression kept us physically away from it,” he said.

“We are proud of our predecessors, who never gave up hope, not even in the darkest years of communist dictatorship, when the Hungarian people was left completely alone,” the minister said.

“Today, we are proud members of the world’s strongest defence alliance. And we are also proud to be a reliable ally, contributing to the security of our community,” Peter Szijjarto said.