Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the political declaration adopted by 26 member states at Thursday’s special European Union summit "has no legal significance".
Speaking to public radio on Sunday, Minister Szijjártó noted that EU decisions on foreign and security policy require unanimous approval from all 27 member states. "We didn’t give in to pressure, we refuse to join those who want to continue the war," he said. "The fact that 26 member states issued a political declaration … is a political opinion. We already knew that most member states would follow Brussels and vote for the war, but as part of the global majority, we took a stand for peace."
Minister Szijjártó said Europe’s policy on the war over the last three years had failed, arguing that the bloc had "ruined its own competitiveness" by imposing sanctions on Russia. Also, he said, the weapons and money the EU had given Ukraine had ended up prolonging the conflict "with the reality on the battlefield not favouring Ukraine".
"This is three years of failure and it’s time Europe finally ditched its policy supporting the continuation of the war," Minister Szijjártó said. "We are in favour of peace, as it was also made clear by our veto at the special European Council summit."
The minister said Europe had "dealt itself a blow" financially and economically over the last three years, and would now have to maintain Ukraine’s one-million strong army and the Ukrainian state, which Kyiv was incapable of doing. The EU, he added, would also have to rebuild its own competitiveness, and fast-tracking Ukraine’s accession to the bloc would "put tremendous pressure" on the bloc.
Minister Szijjártó said the EU could not even meet these objectives "if it were in its best-ever shape", but now that it was "in the worst shape it’s ever been in", it was impossible to set those as "realistic goals".
He said the issues of increasing the EU’s defence capacities and supporting Ukraine should be kept separate.
Meanwhile, Minister Szijjártó said that at his meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, he had told Rubio that "the EU’s liberal pro-war leaders in Brussels" were "organising against" US President Donald Trump and would do anything to thwart Trump’s peace efforts.
Minister Szijjártó said he had also told the secretary of state that Hungary took the opposite position, saying that an agreement between the US and Russia was needed to restore peace in Europe. This, he added, required US-Russia negotiations, adding that while the Biden administration had been "incapable" of holding talks with Russia, Trump had entered into talks, offering "the best hope yet" that the war could end.
Minister Szijjártó said liberal European politicians were also "working to thwart Donald Trump’s political success" because he had "declared war on woke ideology and went against the international liberal mainstream’s global dictatorship of opinion".
He said Hungary was thankful that Trump had abandoned the previous foreign policy of interfering in other countries’ internal affairs and suspended funds that had been aimed at "destabilising mainly patriotic governments". "We hope it’ll also become clear who in Hungary utilised these funds and for what purpose," he added.
Meanwhile, Minister Szijjártó said he did not agree with those who believe Russia poses a threat to the EU.
"We can’t talk about long-term … security architectures without taking Russia into account," he said. "We’ve maintained the diplomatic channels with Russia for three years; these have now also been opened by Donald Trump, and this is a better strategy than shutting down communication channels."