Hungary's Szijjarto Accuses NATO of Escalating Conflict with Ukraine Stance

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto criticises NATO for "crossing red lines on Ukraine." The Hungarian diplomat emphasised that his country does not intend to participate in these actions.

The politician, who recently attended a meeting of the Alliance's foreign ministers in Brussels, believes that NATO has avoided entering the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and direct confrontation with Russia from the beginning. In his opinion, the decisions made in Brussels brought the Alliance closer to war.

During the meeting in the Belgian capital, the Hungarian Foreign Minister declared that his country would not participate in tasks resulting from NATO's increased coordination role and would not provide financial support. "No actions can take place on Hungarian territory (...), which would result from NATO's increased coordination role in training and arms transfers," said Szijjarto on Wednesday.

In an interview with Index, he also highlighted that Budapest opposes the creation of a fund for Ukraine for £86 billion (rounded from €100 billion), which NATO member would finance states proportionally to their GDP. He further noted that Western arms supplies to Ukraine did not lead to success on the battlefield. "We do not know what would have happened if the Ukrainians had not received weapons. Peace could have already been achieved," he assessed.

Szijjarto believes that the most determined member states of the Alliance would like to invite Ukraine to join it already during the July summit in Washington. However, many countries oppose this, so to "give something to the Ukrainians" in connection with the summit, "a substitute action in the form of increasing NATO's coordination role was invented."

"Over the past two years, NATO has made several decisions and steps that strengthen the belief that NATO's original function as a defensive alliance is increasingly eroding and that it is becoming an offensive alliance. This is completely contrary to the NATO statute and the intentions of its founders," said the Hungarian politician.

However, he added that Article 5 should be activated in the event of a Russian attack on any of the Alliance's countries.