Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said European rules were being breached by those who vociferously advocated rule-of-law procedures and discussed the threat to democratic values.
During a break from the EU Foreign Affairs Council, he told a press conference that it appeared that the EU apparently was willing to carry on crossing red lines, referring to a proposal by the EU’s foreign policy chief on training Ukrainian soldiers on Ukrainian territory as well as in other countries, which he called “extremely dangerous”. This proposal would also “cross a red line”, he said, warning that this would be “the first step” towards stationing EU troops in Ukraine. The minister also said that Hungary was under immense pressure to assent to the release of around 6.5 billion euros from the European Peace Framework for the purpose of making further arms shipments to Ukraine, adding that if the Ukrainian authorities carried on discriminating against Hungarian companies, “there can be no question of this” happening. Minister Szijjártó said the Ukrainian authorities were considering stripping Hungarian pharma company Richter of some of its distribution licences and may be drafting a new list of “companies that support the war”, putting Hungarian companies in the crosshairs once again.