Speaking in New York on Friday, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the United Nations General Assembly session held in New York this week has failed as an opportunity to bring the peace in Ukraine closer, as large and strong countries decided it was not the time to start talks.
Regarding an afternoon meeting of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, Minister Szijjártó warned that in the war in Ukraine, a nuclear power confronted a country supported by other nuclear powers. The warring parties had lately referred to their nuclear capabilities “openly, shamelessly”, and deployed arms containing depleted uranium, he said. The minister said that in times like these, it was even more important that countries yet to join the treaty should do so, to ensure that no country would conduct nuclear tests, and lamented that the US and China were not among the signatories. On another subject, Minister Szijjártó said tuberculosis was a renewed challenge for the world. Developing countries still see some 1.5 million TB-related deaths, he said. The efforts and resources consumed by the coronavirus pandemic also harmed systemic prevention, he added. As a result, the number of infections started to grow in Europe for the first time in 20 years, with the largest number of cases and steepest growth reported from Ukraine, he said. In Hungary, the number of TB cases grew by 35% in annual comparison by 2022, he said.