The foreign minister has said that under the extraordinary circumstances created by the novel coronavirus pandemic, it is especially important to intensify NATO’s anti-terrorism efforts.
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said ahead of a video conference meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers that terrorism is a root cause of illegal migration all over the world.
Minister Szijjártó said migration not only comes with “cultural and security risks” but “extreme health risks”, too. The spread of the virus may speed up significantly along the routes of “illegal, uncontrolled migration,” he said.
Regarding the anti-terrorism missions of NATO, Minister Szijjártó noted that the agreement between the US and Afghanistan had freed troops to be deployed elsewhere. Hungary will also have free capacities which it is ready to regroup into other missions “to keep the Hungarian contribution to NATO missions at their current level”.
The minister said Hungary supports the expansion of NATO’s mission in Iraq, and is ready to take part in it. Hungarian doctors and epidemiologists at NATO’s center of excellence for military medicine in Budapest also play a leading role in the alliance’s pandemic containment efforts, he said.