FM: Campaign to discredit Hungary has ratcheted up in Ukraine

Budapest Times

14-05-2025

Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said a campaign to discredit Hungary has ratcheted up in Ukraine ever since Hungary made clear that it will not supply weapons or money to Kyiv, adding that neither will it agree to cease energy cooperation with Russia.
No information had been revealed, either formally or informally, in recent days proving Kyiv's espionage charges, Minister Szijjártó said in response to a question at a joint press conference with his Rwandan counterpart, insisting Hungary had been confronted by a 'state-financed and controlled campaign of discreditation' and was on the receiving end of a 'propaganda attack'.
Talks on the rights of the Hungarian national minority in Transcarpathia had been planned for today, he noted, adding that 'the intensifying campaign to discredit Hungarians' made the timing of the meeting unsuitable.
Minister Szijjártó said the Hungarian government has stood up for the rights of the Hungarian minority consistently since 2015, yet 'the left wing-press start worrying for Transcarpathian Hungarians' when coordination talks are cancelled in the midst of the propaganda attack. This, he added, amounted to 'double standards'.
'Obviously we want to continue coordination talks with the Ukrainians about Transcarpathian Hungarians … as the Ukrainians have been making promises for ten years while cheating us for ten years and steadily taking away Hungarians' rights. You can rest assured that a change to Ukraine's anti-Hungarian policy … won't depend on this single coordination meeting.'
Meanwhile, Minister Szijjártó said that when war was being waged in a neighbouring country, it was natural to carry out preparations for self-defence.
'We have maintained this policy for three years: to protect Hungary from the war, to stay out of the war, not to allow them to provoke us into getting involved in a war underway next door,' he said.
'And when a war is underway in the neighbourhood, you must be prepared to protect yourself. That requires an army and capabilities, and the Zrinyi 2026 scheme was not launched only recently, but the development of Hungary's armed forces has been on the agenda for quite a few years, as we must be able to protect ourselves. Unfortunately, the current situation makes this all the more clear,' he said.
Commenting on Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's recent remarks regarding the presidential election in Romania, he asked what it was that the prime minister should have said in the current situation. 'That we will not cooperate with Romania's next president? Really? So someone says that he should say just that, and that should be the government's foreign policy?'.
'We always aim for the best possible cooperation with a country where a huge ethnic Hungarian community lives because recent years have proven for everyone that when Hungary and a neighbouring country maintain good relations, it is best for the local Hungarians. So it is natural that when a presidential election is underway in a neighbouring country, we respect it,' he added.
Concerning the future, he said the government would not accept any curtailment of the rights of ethnic Hungarians and it would resolutely stand up for ethnic Hungarians in Transylvania and Szekler Land, regardless of who the negotiating partner is.
He said all steps would be coordinated with the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) as they represented local Hungarians there.