Peter Szijjarto emphasized that the pressure was enormous, as almost all participants urged the payment of the next €500-million installment for arms shipments to Ukraine, adding that Hungary decided not to approve it.

he warned, adding that "this is our clear expectation, and we are not willing to make concessions from it. It is nonsense that while Ukraine expects the European Union, including Hungary, to make further and further financial sacrifices to finance arms supplies, it has put the largest Hungarian bank on the list of war sponsors and is keeping it there," he underlined. "In today’s meeting, I have made it clear to the high representative and to all my counterparts that they too should be so kind as to take steps in this matter with the Ukrainians.”

he added.

The Ukrainian authorities "could easily resolve this situation, they could remove OTP from this list in a minute if they wanted to, but it seems that there is no will for that at the moment." Finally, he pointed out that the Ukrainian authorities mentioned four reasons for putting the bank on the list, all of which were "ridiculous, false and untruthful in every way,” the minister stressed. 

The war in Ukraine is claiming an increasing number of casualties, there is a real possibility of serious natural disasters, and there is increasing talk of the threat of nuclear accidents, Mr Szijjarto mentioned.

he said, adding that “although after sixteen months, it has been acknowledged at the Council meeting that the global majority wants immediate peace, but despite this acknowledgment, they continue to urge a military solution in the European Union.”

Those who favored a solution to the war on the battlefield over a diplomatic settlement bore responsibility for the growing casualties and natural disasters, which would increase the prices of reconstruction obviously to be spearheaded by Europe, the minister opined.

However, serious questions are needed to be put on the agenda before any decision is made about how reconstruction would be financed and how it would affect the development funding of member states, he pointed out. “So, despite the growing number of casualties, we continue to see member states calling for more and more military support for Ukraine, which we unfortunately still consider extremely dangerous. Instead of military support, the focus should finally be on peace efforts,” he said.

After that, the minister mentioned of a fresh report by the Venice Commission declaring that Ukraine failed to meet its obligations regarding the rights of national minorities. “The situation is that Ukraine has been curtailing the rights of national minority communities since 2015," he said, calling Ukraine’s decision to delay the changes to the operations of minority schools” propaganda”, arguing that this offered no solution to the situation of ethnic Hungarian schools.

Mr Szijjarto said. He finally reiterated that although several politicians urged it again, Hungary would never approve sanctions that would render the operations of its own nuclear industry impossible.

Cover photo: Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto (right) and Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Wlachovsky at the meeting of EU Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on 26 June 2023 (Photo: MTI/EPA/Julien Warnand)