Hungarian Conservative

Péter Szijjártó noted that the so-called post-Cotonou agreement, planned between the European Union and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group, has three pillars: economic cooperation, migration, and other issues, such as sexual rights. ‘Hungary clearly agrees that economic cooperation should be tightened, which would be beneficial for both parties, especially nowadays when the world is moving towards the formation of blocs again,’ he said, adding, however, that regarding the issue of migration and sexual rights, the Hungarian government has serious doubts and red lines.

Cardinal Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel, Archbishop of Addis Ababa, said Ethiopia and Hungary had both preserved their Christian values, making them similar in many ways.

Péter Szijjártó visited the construction of Mercedes-Benz’s new plant and later presented the company’s CEO, Christian Wolff with the Hungarian Cross of Merit.

The foreign minister emphasised right after winter, ‘in Europe, it is fashionable to strut about with great bravado these days,’ but the International Energy Agency recently issued an ‘ominous’ report indicating that the most severe difficulties are expected to come in the next heating season when supply security will be critical.

The Hungarian foreign minister reminded that the rights of Transcarpathian Hungarians have been systematically curtailed in Ukraine since 2015, and the most recent example of this is that minority schools have become impossible to operate since September this year.

Last year, the US terminated the 1979 double taxation avoidance agreement with Hungary. According to Szijjártó, the USG took this step in response to the Hungarian government not giving its consent to the introduction of the global minimum tax.

The minister emphasised that the current situation is lethal for Europe’s competitiveness, with gas prices seven times higher than in the United States and electricity three times higher than in China. ‘Under the current circumstances, the solution is to focus on the supply side instead of the demand and bring as much gas to the European market as possible,’ he nailed down.

Péter Szijjártó pointed out that Hungary is already the world’s fourth-largest producer of electric batteries and that in the last thirteen months, batteries have been the country’s top export product.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán visited Belgrade, for talks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.

The NATO–Ukraine Foreign Ministers’ meeting will take place on 4–5 April in Brussels and it will not be a one-time event, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. He also added that Hungary’s concerns will be discussed.

In essence, Orbán’s government is signalling a willingness to cooperate with the internationally sanctioned Iranian regime even in areas such as nuclear policy. 

Diplomacy has always been a complicated game of chess, not every move is going to be a winning one. It goes without say that there are advantages in implementing realpolitik, even with oppressive regimes. The paradox is that it can also make them even stronger.

Foreign Minister Szijjártó welcomed the fact that Hungary and France have a cooperation based on common sense, and also reminded that French companies make up the sixth-largest investor community in Hungary. In the past eight years, 34 major French corporate investments have received financial support from the government.

‘We believe in connectivity, relationships, and cooperation based on mutual respect. I think the Organization of Turkic States is an excellent example of all this because it includes Caucasians, Central Asians, and Europeans, and we all know how to cooperate with respect,’ Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told the audience at an event in Ankara, Turkey.

Ahead of the upcoming presidential elections in Montenegro, US Deputy Assistant Secretary Gabriel Escobar has warned of the possibility of Russian interference. A fast-tracked accession to the EU of the Western Balkans countries, which Hungary has been urging for some time, could put an end to Russian influence in the region.

The train carrying around 1,000 Ferencváros fans to the Europa League match in Leverkusen was stopped by German police at the Czech-German border. According to one witness, the fans were told they pose a threat to Germany.

The step would make Hungary the first EU country to move its embassy to Jerusalem, which may set a precedent and other EU countries could follow suit, in the face of disapproval by Brussels.

The recent measure of Moscow challenges the Western media’s portrayal of Hungary and Russia as having a uniquely friendly relationship.

Péter Szijjártó expressed hope that members of the European and transatlantic community would adopt the Hungarian stance, adding that currently, on this hemisphere, war rhetoric is much louder and stronger than peace rhetoric.

Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has recently held talks with his Swedish counterpart, Tobias Billström, in Stockholm.

The Hungarian government has offered a €25,000 grant for demining the war-torn Nagorno-Karabakh region only weeks after the two countries struck an agreement about importing green energy from Azerbaijan to Hungary.

Bosch has announced another massive investment in Hungary in order to focus more on developing new technologies toward electromobility.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister travelled to Minsk on Monday to meet with his Belarusian counterpart, Sergei Aleinik, with whom he held a joint press conference. Péter Szijjártó stated that the most critical duty of the international community is to save lives, which calls for an immediate end to hostilities and the commencement of peace talks.

Rastislav Káčer made the controversial statements on the same TV programme where Speaker of the National Council Boris Kollár expressed similar views last April.

Following the two powerful earthquakes at the start of the week, the Hungarian government has confirmed that Hungary is there for Turkey in its hour of need.

Péter Szijjártó did not mince his words when reacting to recent critical remarks on Budapest’s Ukraine policy by US Ambassador David Pressman.

‘It is a legitimate expectation that 2023 will be another successful year in Hungarian-Israeli relations.’

During a joint press conference with his Romanian colleague, Szijjártó reminded that the strategic partnership agreement with Romania was signed 20 years ago and stressed that keeping it in place is in the best interest of both Romania and Hungary.

Minister Szijjártó awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic to Sato Yoshio, Chair of the Committee on Europe of Keidanren, the Japan Business Federation.

‘Peace will not come about without dialogue,’ Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister of Hungary said after his meeting with Sergei Lavrov.

It was high time the practice of ‘taking Hungarians for an idiot’ stopped, and the country that has a one-thousand-year-old Christian statehood is given the respect it deserves.