Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said Europe and Africa want peace in Ukraine and to avoid the war spiralling into a global crisis.
At a joint press conference with his Liberian counterpart, the foreign minister said the war in Ukraine confronted both countries with similar challenges, citing the blockage of supply chains and trade routes, skyrocketing prices and food shortages, leading to security problems, violence, and the spread of extremist ideologies and terrorism. Europe and Africa should work for peace since both continents would pay the price of the war’s escalation, he added. The minister said both countries were committed to peace as a sound basis for pragmatic cooperation. Minister Szijjártó announced that 25 Liberian students will have a chance to study in Hungary each year with a scholarship, noting that 549 applied for university courses this year, and a mixed economic committee will be established following interest in various Hungarian agricultural technologies shown in Liberia. He also called for an economic partnership agreement between the European Union and West Africa with a view to avoiding new waves of migration triggered by crises linked to war.
Meanwhile, responding to a question concerning yesterday’s press briefing by the US ambassador to Hungary, Minister Szijjártó said Hungary and the US gauged the war differently given their relative proximities to it. Referring to a US-funded billboard campaign mounted in Hungary, he said it was perplexing why the US felt it “necessary to put pressure” on Hungary to change instead of respecting its point of view. “No amount of billboards, press briefings or dollars channelled to the opposition will divert the Hungarian government from its pro-peace stance…” he said.
Asked about a statement the Polish ambassador gave after Minister Szijjártó visited Moscow this week, the minister said that Hungary and Poland were linked by “friendship and brotherhood”, and despite their different approaches to the war, the Poles could always count on the support of the Hungarians and vice versa. No amount of conflict could “break this brotherhood apart”, he added.