Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the chance for achieving peace is "far greater" with negotiations, re-opening diplomatic channels and dialogue than with weapons deliveries, sanctions and a strategy based on diplomatic refusal.
In a telephone interview with public radio on Sunday, Minister Szijjártó said it was now “apparent to everybody” that the strategy of Europe and the United States over the past two and a half years didn’t work, even though Western politicians wouldn’t say so in public because that would be an admission of failure. Sanctions were a “shot in the foot, then the knee, then the chest” for the European economy, while European and American weapons deliveries didn’t change the situation on the battlefield and didn’t bring the war any nearer to a close, he added. Minister Szijjártó said there was no solution on the battlefield and that resolution needed to be sought at the negotiating table and by opening diplomatic channels. He added that restoring the legitimacy of dialogue for peace was “extraordinarily important”. Addressing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s talks in the past week, Szijjártó said no politician, especially a European one, could have done what the prime minister did. Besides Hungary’s prime minister, European politicians who can talk to everybody, who are welcomed everywhere and accepted as negotiating partners are no more, he added.