Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade H.E. Mr. Péter Szijjártó was the first to speak as non-Council member in the Chamber about the question of European peace and stability, expressing the hope that the new US administration and Russia will put emphasis on engaging in a dialogue in order to facilitate the resolution of conflicts in the region.
Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade expressed his deepest condolences on the passing away of Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations.
In his statement, H.E. Mr. Péter Szijjártó highlighted that recent European security challenges have global components, global reasons, and need global efforts to be resolved. The only chance to overcome these, he said, was to have a realistic change in the Russian-American relationship towards pragmatism that should be achieved through mutual trust and respect towards international law. Otherwise root causes of these challenges could not be tackled.
Regarding Hungary’s neighborhood, full implementation of the Minsk Agreement is considered as the only way to overcome the conflict in Ukraine. Talking about the Western Balkans, Hungary supports the European integration path and hopes that this will be accelerated in the near future.
On the margins of the open debate, the Minister held bilateral talks with Under-Secretary-General Jeffrey Feltman and Secretary General António Guterres. He told the head of the global organisation that Hungary strongly supports the Secretary-General’s preventive diplomacy. Mr. Szijjártó said that last year we contributed fifty thousand euros to support preventive diplomacy activities, and we are prepared to make a similar contribution this year. In addition, we fully support the UN Secretary-General’s goals in the fight against terrorism, his plan to strenghen the UN's counter terrorism architecture and the establishement of an office of counter terrorism in particular.
Please find the Foreign Minister's full speech here.
