“And instead of dividing the world into blocs again, let’s enter the era of connectivity,” he said, adding that connectivity would promote mutually beneficial global cooperation based on mutual respect. Though Hungary and Serbia could have chosen to be isolated from each other, their leaders understood that connectivity was beneficial for both countries, Szijjártó said.
Meanwhile, the minister said Hungary had emerged stronger from all of the recent crises thanks to its national responses to them. Hungary responded to the financial crisis with tax cuts, to the migration crisis with stronger border protection, to the economic crisis with investment promotion schemes, and to the energy crisis with the recognition that energy supply is a physical rather than a political or ideological matter, Szijjártó said. He welcomed that these response measures had enabled Hungary to contribute to meeting the UN’s sustainable development targets. Citing the UN’s sustainability report, he said, Hungary ranked 22nd and Serbia 36th in meeting sustainable development goals.
Water and energy security are among the two most important issues and Hungary is committed to resolving the challenges related to them, he said. Concerning water shortages, Szijjártó highlighted the importance of technology, noting that water management solutions developed by Hungary were being used in many parts of the world. Water security is also critical for preventing the emergence of more migration waves, he added.
Hungary will continue to argue for peace in Ukraine despite all the attacks, criticism and fake news, because the longer the war lasts, the more people will die, Szijjártó
said in another speech on Tuesday.
Szijjártó told the UN General Assembly during a discussion on Ukraine in New York that he was the representative of a nation that had been living next door to the war for 500 days, and already paid a huge price for the conflict with many ethnic Hungarians dying in the fights, the ministry said. For more than a year, international politics have been focused on what they think about the war, he said. It would be high time to talk also about what they think about peace and how it could be achieved, what the solution could be, he added. He said the solution should be sought “exclusively at the negotiating table and not on the battlefield”. “Those arguing for putting off the negotiations risk more people dying … and reconstruction to be longer and more expensive,” he said.
He praised the efforts targeting peaceful settlement, citing efforts by the Vatican, Türkiye, China and African states.
Szijjártó said that in all cases of armed conflicts in far-away locations, European Union members supported peaceful solutions and dialogue, but have gone a different way in the case of Ukraine.
