Hungary’s Foreign Minister: Trump Is Ukraine’s Only Hope for Peace
Péter Szijjártó sat down with The American Conservative for an explosive interview about Ukraine, Poland, national sovereignty, and peace.
As the White House ramps up pressure on Moscow to end the war in Ukraine, supporters of peace negotiations hope that a previously announced Trump–Putin summit in Budapest remains in the offing. One person who thinks it does is Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, who recently sat down with The American Conservative to discuss tensions between Hungary and Poland, efforts by the European Union to erode national sovereignty, and the prospects for peace in Ukraine.
Thank you for speaking to TAC. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been talking about peace for a while. Now we see both President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump interested in Budapest being a peace venue, despite EU opposition and despite the previous baggage of the last Budapest memorandum. What role do we see Hungary playing in the forthcoming Budapest summit, and how does that vindicate the position of the ruling party?
Well, first of all, I have to tell you that the only hope for peace to be made in Ukraine is President Trump. That was one of the reasons why we have crossed our fingers for him to win the elections here, because we all knew that if the Democrats had stayed in power, they would have further fueled the conflict, and there would have been no hope for peace to be made. So, the only hope for peace to return to Central Europe is President Trump.
For the last three and a half years, for the time the war has been on, Hungary has been the only country which has stood up for peace from the very beginning; we never delivered weapons to Ukraine. We always wanted to avoid the money of our taxpayers being sent to Ukraine, although we have received all the refugees, without question. But we always had a clear understanding that this war will never end on the battlefield. The only place where this war can end is a negotiating table, and the only way this war can end is diplomacy. And therefore, we support all peace initiatives. At the very beginning of the war, we made it very clear that we are ready to assist any peace initiative with all our capacities, and we were reached out to last Thursday by President Trump, then by President Putin, and told that they agreed on Budapest as a location, which made us very happy. We are happy that this takes place in Budapest, because we will provide all necessary circumstances and logistics for a successful peace summit.
But from the very first moment that this was announced, we knew that there would be many who would do everything in order to prevent this summit from happening. Therefore, I’m pretty sure that until this meeting takes place, we will see and hear fake news, leaks, statements about this summit not happening. We have to count on that, because there are so many who are counter-interested in peace. European leaders and Ukraine. So, they are doing their best using their media to spread news, fake news, leaks, claiming that this summit will not take place.
But as of, as of now, you’re confident that this is on the track?
I mean, what we have received as information will take place, and I trust President Trump and President Putin more than the liberal media.
You recently said, “Brussels is preparing for war, and they want Europeans, including Hungarians, to pay the price. As part of this war preparation, the EU Commission has drafted a 7-year budget that is more about Ukraine than about the European Union.” Recently, you also said, “Discussing economic security in Denmark at the meeting of EU trade ministers. Yet the greatest threat to Europe’s economy doesn’t come from outside, but from Brussels itself.” Could you please elaborate on what these threats are?
The European Union over-politicizes and over-ideologizes everything. They over-politicize and over-ideologize even the most rational things in the world as well. This is very dangerous, because it is a pro-war integration effort. Leaders of the European Union have done everything since President Trump took office to undermine his peace efforts. The European leaders want to send all the European money and all the European military equipment to Ukraine. The European leaders consider this war as if it was their war. The European leaders consider this war in a way that if Ukraine doesn’t win, Europe loses as well, which is the incentive to continue the war, right?
On the other hand, they over-ideologize and over-politicize the very physical issue of energy supplies as well, which is crazy. Energy supplies should be considered as physical nature based on geography, but the European Union considers it as a political issue, which is crazy, because with politics, with statements, with press conferences, you cannot heat or cool your flat, your house, right? You need energy, and you can only buy energy from where you have infrastructure leading to you. And geography determines infrastructure. Geography determines energy policy, and they simply don’t understand it. So therefore, the biggest threat to the European Union is the bureaucrats sitting in Brussels.
You have been outspoken about your support for Russian energy. I quote, “I want to say that we really cherish our cooperation with our Russian partners and colleagues on the field of energy. Why? Because of our experience. We have never been let down.” Of all the ministers, you seem to be the one who is in support of a more equidistant foreign policy of Hungary. My question is a little different: Do you think that in our age of growing imperialism, that might be difficult to defend, especially while you’re part of the EU?
Well, our strategy is very simple. We want a strategy called economic neutrality, which means that we do not over-politicize and do not over-ideologize rational issues. We use our national interest as a starting point. We can only look at our own issues through our own angle, and we expect others to respect that. We base our foreign policy strategy on mutual respect. We never had the inspiration to interfere into domestic issues of others. We never had the ambition to tell others how to live, what to do, how to decide.
Prime Minister Orbán is the only European politician who can, who can maintain a respect-based relationship with all the leaders of global powers. He is the only European leader who can simultaneously talk to President Trump, President Putin, and President Xi. He is the only one because we always carried out a political strategy which was based on mutual respect, and this has been valued by partners for the last 15 years. The European liberal mainstream tried to portray us as if we were isolated. But the reality is that this is being disproven by the fact that we are supposed to be the host of the peace summit. The fact is that it is the European Union which has been isolated.
The European Union has isolated itself from us politically, with the European liberal leaders wanting to satisfy liberal media in the last years by bashing President Trump. They have isolated themselves from China, considering them as a systematic rival, which is stupid. They have their own system. We have our own system. We don’t interfere in theirs, and we expect them not to interfere in ours. Third, they have isolated themselves from Russia, with all the sanctions. We [Europeans] have isolated ourselves from Africa, while putting out these crazy ideologies of LGBT and other stuff as a precondition to economic cooperation with African countries, which the Chinese don’t do.
So, the European Union has isolated itself from all the major players of global politics and global economy. While we Hungarians have been able to keep a good relationship in every direction.
So, on your recent public spats with, for example, the Polish Vice Premier, Radek Sikorsky—
He loves me. Yeah.
Of course. You have been in public spats with the Polish Deputy PM Radek Sikorski. However, it appears that Poland is increasingly an outlier, and the rest of the Visegrad 4 [Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia], are slowly aligning themselves with the Hungarian vision. Is this the start of a permanent rift between right-wing central European countries in Europe?
Look, we are so different from the current Polish government. The former Polish government was a great ally of ours—
But still very antagonistic to Russia—
We respect that because we have different locations, we have different history, we have different experiences, okay? We never judged their stance towards Russia. We have a different one. But we never considered their approach as bad, because they are Polish and we are Hungarians. They think in a Polish way. We think in a Hungarian way. That’s it. You have to respect that. So, we have no problem with that. The strength of Visegrad cooperation was exactly that, that we only cooperated on issues where we had a similar position, and we respected the fact that there are issues where we have different positions. I mean, come on, you have different positions in a marriage as well. Right? Not to speak about four countries.
So, this is a very artificial way of thinking. You know, I was never disturbed by the fact that we looked at the issue of the war in Ukraine in a different way. But we never criticized each other, but the Poles took all the possible chances to attack us.
You mean the Polish government?
Yeah, the current Polish government, yeah. I mean Mr. Sikorsky is one of the most pro-war politicians in Europe. And since I am a pro-peace politician, it’s obvious that we differ.
That’s going in the interview.
I hope so.
Anyway, I got used to it. I got used to it. And as long as he’s in position of power, as long as I am in position, we have to understand that we have a totally different approach towards the main issues of the current global development.
Regardless of Hungarian elections, the trends in Europe are towards EU consolidation. What is the worst-case scenario in front of Hungary in your calculation?
Well, first of all, Brussels has been trying to step over member states for a very long time now; this is the major debate in the European Union. The war and the challenges around us are making this debate more spectacular. This debate has been between the Federalists and the Sovereignists. The Federalists want to build the United States of Europe. They want the European Union to be an integration. We don’t want that. We want the European Union to be a strong integration of sovereign countries which are allowed and ready to stick to their national specificities.
So, we are not ready to give up our culture, our sovereignty, our religion, our history, our heritage. No, we are not trying to give that up. We want to remain Hungarians in Europe. It is the European Union treaty which says that, regarding the enlargement of the European Union, unanimity is required. If this is being overcome, this is a clear violation and regulation of the European treaty. Is Brussels, or are the liberals in Europe ready to violate the treaty?
It is not that they are ready. They are already doing it. So, for example, when the ban on Russian oil and gas imports was made as a decision, it was a clear violation of the European Union treaty. Why? Because this is a sanction by content, and sanctions you can only decide unanimously. Therefore, they have put it in a fake framework of trade. Regarding trade measures you need a qualified majority vote. But this is not a trade measure by substance. This is a sanction.
So, with that, they have seriously breached and seriously violated the EU treaty. So it is not that they are only ready to do that, but they consistently do that, and I’m pretty sure that they will try to step over the member states regarding the enlargement as well.
Now, when it comes to the elections, and the worst- and best-case scenarios: Yes, it’s obvious what is at stake. It is the sovereignty of the country at stake. Why? Because as long as we have a national government, a patriotic government, we can protect ourselves from the attacks on our sovereignty.
What are these attacks? For example, Brussels wants us to receive a large number of migrants. Brussels wants us to allow LGBT organizations to spread all over in schools and kindergartens as well. They want us to be dragged into the war. So they want to take away our sovereignty. The national government so far was successful in rejecting that. We have not been dragged into the war. We don’t allow migrants, we don’t allow LGBT organizations to enter schools and kindergartens and so on. No war, no migration, no gender nonsense. We were able to keep that.
Once a puppet government replaces, God forbid, the national government, the country will be dragged into the war. Migrants will enter the territory of the country, and the LGBT organization will spread gender ideology. That’s what is at stake, whether a national government or a puppet government instructed by Brussels will govern the country.
Brussels is heavily backing the opposition movement. They know that if the opposition enters into power, they will do everything that is being instructed from Brussels. So the stake of elections is clear: national government or a puppet government.
Thank you.
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