Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said that unless the international community is able to resolve today's security challenges, humanity could find itself closer than ever before to a third world war.
Speaking in Astana on Wednesday, Minister Szijjártó called for seeking the possibility of peaceful resolutions. “If the global community cannot find peaceful resolutions to at least one or two of the current security challenges within the coming, relatively short period, then it wouldn’t be completely unrealistic to expect that we will find ourselves closer than ever to the outbreak of a third world war,” he said. Hungary’s interests lie in peace, he said, adding that this was the reason why the government considered it important to take part in the work of the Organization of Turkic States, as these countries “always stand by peaceful settlements and reducing the risk of escalation”. Minister Szijjártó noted that the Turkish president had been the only politician so far to have successfully mediated between Ukraine and Russia by negotiating the Black Sea grain export deal, but since then, this situation “has also, regrettably, deteriorated”. Hungary, therefore, has an interest in an urgent peaceful settlement in Ukraine and the prevention of an interstate war in the Middle East, he said.