Why Budapest opted for closer ties with Trump

Some consider Hungary the “black sheep” of the European Union, as it often exercises a veto on crucial decisions, while defending its national interests. Although a member of the EU for 22 years, Hungary today seems to be closer to President Trump than to the Commission.
“Naftemporiki” had the opportunity to talk to the Hungarian Foreign Minister, Szijjártó Péter, who was in Thessaloniki to inaugurate the new Hungarian consulate, and in fact in the building of the Serbian diplomatic mission.

“The co-location of the consulates of two countries may be strange for many, but for Serbia and Hungary it is not the first time,” said 47-year-old Szijjártó Péter, speaking to “Naftemporiki” and Michalis Psilos, who attended the inauguration of the Serbian Consulate General in the heart of Thessaloniki.

“First of all, Mr. Psilos, we decided to establish a consular representation here in Thessaloniki, because more than half a million Hungarians come to Greece for vacation every year and spend around three million nights here. And half of the Hungarian tourists come to this region, especially to Halkidiki. Greece is the second most popular destination for Hungarians. Croatia is the first, because it is closer.

Athens is far away and it is complicated to provide a fast and efficient consular service to Hungarians who may face problems with their passports, etc. Therefore, we decided that every year from April to October, from the beginning of April to the end of October, we will maintain a consular presence here.

We decided to establish this consulate in the premises of the Consulate General of Serbia. The Serbs have their presence in our premises in Santiago, Chile and Valletta, Malta, and we in their diplomatic missions in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Co-location is a cheaper way and very effective, provided of course there is the highest possible level of mutual trust. Otherwise, it does not work.”

Asked about Hungarian-Greece relations, he emphasized that “as allies in both NATO and the European Union, I would say that in general the relationship is good. What I am telling you is that I believe that the importance of mutual respect and mutual trust is very important between countries, especially nowadays.

For us, it is a little painful when we hear criticism from the Greek leadership about Hungary, about our internal issues. You never hear us criticizing any development in Greece, because we believe that any development here in Greece can be better judged by the Greek people. That is why I hope that in the future, the Greek government will spend less time commenting on internal issues in Hungary, and this will help this relationship to be even better than it is now.”

 

The full interview follows:

– Dear Minister of Foreign Affairs, thank you so much for joining us, here in Salonica. I would like first of all to ask you about the purpose of your visit to Salonika.

Mr Psilos, actually, this is a very special one. We have decided to establish a consular representation here in Thessaloniki, because there’s a very high number of Hungarians visiting this area annually. Speaking, there are more than half a million Hungarians deciding to come to Greece for vacation. This makes Greece the second most popular destination for Hungarians. Croatia is the first, because it is closer, and they spend around 3 million nights here in Greece. And half of these tourists are coming to this region. If you only have a personal representation in Athens, it’s very complicated to provide a fast and effective consular service for Hungarians who might get in trouble, have issues. We decided that every year from the beginning of April to the end of October we maintain a consular presence here. We decided to establish this consulate on the premises of the General Consulate of Serbia.
The Serbs are having their presence at our facility in Santiago de Chile and in La Valletta in Malta, and so far we have received accommodation at their locations in Zambia and in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It’s a very effective, quick way of establishing our representation, cheaper compared to if you have to build your own your facility, so this is a very effective way, but I mean you can only make such co-location with another country if you have the highest possible level of mutual trust, otherwise, it doesn’t work. So that’s why it’s very rare. It’s only Serbia for us to have such a cooperation. This is really unique, so it’s mutually beneficial for both countries participating in this project for sure.

– Dear minister, what is your assessment of the Greek -Hungarian relationship?

We are definitely allies both in NATO and the European Union. I would say that generally the relationship is good. I think that the significance of mutual respect and mutual trust is very important between countries, especially nowadays. For us, it is a bit painful when we hear criticism on behalf of the Greek leadership on Hungary, on our domestic issues. You never hear us criticizing any developments in Greece, because we do believe that any developments here in Greece can be judged best by the Greek people. If the Greek people are happy with what is going on, they will decide similarly to if they are not happy. That’s why I hope that in the future, the Greek government will take less time to comment on domestic issues in Hungary, and that will help this relationship to be even better than currently.

– I would like to ask you about the energy matter. Recently Greece and the United States have signed an agreement to transfer American LNG from Alexandroupolis to Central Europe. And Hungary, also?

I mean, a possible cooperation on the field of energy supplies offers a great opportunity to enhance the dimension of our relations. We only enter into a contract on energy in case it is cheaper compared to the sources we currently use, and at least as reliable as the sources so far. Hungary is in a very special situation because we are in the heart of Europe, a landlocked country, which is totally dependent on the energy infrastructure around and pipelines.
If you look at our current situation, you see that in case we are being cut off  from Russian oil and Russian gas, then physically it is excluded that the country can be supplied entirely. Therefore, for us, being cut off from Russian oil and gas is totally against our national interest because on one hand, it makes our supplies very complicated and physically impossible, and on the other hand, it would make the supplies much more expensive than it is currently run three times. When we are looking for diversification, then we always look for solutions which are physically possible depending on the pipeline network, cheaper and at least as reliable as the ones so far. We have to know that in the southeastern part of Europe, including both Hungary and Greece, the pipeline networks are basically fully utilized.
When I look at possible further deliveries from the south to Hungary, currently I see only a very limited chance, not because of lack of will, not because of lack of infrastructure. Without increasing the capacities in the southeastern part of Europe, namely without building new pipelines in the region, you can’t make a big breakthrough. You can make some small adjustments, but generally you cannot reshape the whole thing. That’s what we have to know, and this is no politics, no ideology, that’s purely physics

– Hungarian oil company MOL has already decided to buy the shares of Gazprom in the Serbian NIS energy company. Why?

The Russian company has now been under sanctions of the United States, therefore negotiations have been started aiming at the Hungarian oil company to buy the majority of the, of the Serbian company. If the US government approves the agreement, it’s going to be out of the sanction regime. Plus the Hungarian Oil company is determined to be a significant player of the Slovakian oil market. And in case of a harmonized and coordinated operation of the oil markets of this region, all the disadvantages stemming from the fact that we are landlocked will be diminished. Therefore, when it comes to the security of supply or when it comes to the stability of prices we will come to a situation. We will come to a beneficial situation compared to which we have never been before.

– Dear Minister, recently there was a very heated debate with Poland. Warsaw has called the Hungarian government “pro-Russian”. What is your stance towards Moscow in relation, of course, with the ongoing war in Ukraine?

Our position is crystal clear. We do support all efforts of the Americans to make peace as soon as possible in the region, we do believe that it is in the interest of all the peoples in the Central European region to bring peace back. Unfortunately, these efforts by President Trump have been severely undermined by Brussels. You know, the decisions of delivering more weapons. The decision of sending more money, sending troops. It’s insane. Obviously. So 800 billion dollars on the operation of the Ukrainian state, plus 700 billion dollars on rearming or arming the Ukrainian army, which is insane, which is totally against our interest. Europe is not able to put together such an amount of money. Obviously it’s going to be covered by the money of the people in Europe, and we are not ready to send the money of the Hungarian people into Ukraine.

– For Brussels and many European leaders, Hungary is the black sheep of Europe…

That’s what they have been doing for the last 16 years. We have been in office for 16 years, and obviously we are absolutely not in line with the mainstream of Brussels. To the contrary, we are going against the mainstream. We say a clear no to migration, we say a clear no to war, and we say a clear no to gender ideology. So these three issues are the cornerstones in Brussels, and are really frustrated by the fact that we are going against the mainstream. In the meantime, we are still successful back at home, so, therefore they are very angry with us in this regard.

– Hungary has a very good relationship with the Trump administration. And recently Hungary has agreed to participate in the so-called “Council of Peace” of president Trump…

Even more than that we see that the current international order and its actors, like the international organizations, have not been able to overcome those challenges which were brought forward by the world in the last years; wars, armed conflicts.
I speak about the operation of international organizations. The international organizations have not been able to solve the major crises of the world, so this whole international order has failed in a way that it was not able to manage the challenges.
President Trump is now willing to build up something new.
We do believe that it should be given a chance, because no one has believed that the Abraham Accords would bring back peace and safe life to the people in the Middle East. And then it did, it was successful.
If President Trump had been elected back in 2020 again, then it would be a totally different situation, but so what we think is that this peace initiative of President Trump does not have an alternative, there are no better options currently.

– But what about Greenland, for example? Trump wants to conquer or to buy Greenland?

In that regard, I believe  that it’s a bilateral issue of the Danish and the Americans, and we absolutely don’t want to interfere.

– And what about the so-called tariffs that president Trump is using against Europe, as a weapon?

I think that the fact that von der Leyen was not able to reach a good agreement from the perspective of Europe shows very clearly how weak the European Union is currently when it comes to global economy and global politics. The European Union has been weakened entirely by the current European Commission. I just want to reiterate that the so-called tariff agreement reached by von der Leyen was a great deal from the perspective of the Americans and the tragic deal from the perspective of the Europeans. If I was an American, I would give a standing ovation to President Trump to push through such an agreement with the EU. But this whole agreement, so-called agreement, is a symptom of how weak the European Commission has made the European Union.

– According to your opinion, what is the alternative for Europe?

I think that we should stop the federalization because currently there’s still a big debate within the European Union whether it should be a federal empire or it should be an integration of strong sovereign countries. Our approach is that strong integration based on strong sovereign countries is the solution and not federalization of the European Union, because we see that, the more competences are being brought to Brussels, the worse it is and the more competences are with the member states is, the better it is.

– Mr Minister, Hungary insists that Brussels wants to interfere in the coming elections against the current government of Prime Minister Orban. Why?

Brussels has already started to interfere. They speak about that openly, that they want a new government in Budapest, a new government which would not say no to the war, which would not say no to the migration and which would not say no to the gender ideology. They speak about this openly. What is even more cruel and brutal and open and shameless is the interference by Ukraine. Ukraine has been interfering very badly in our elections. They are supporting the opposition (Tisza) because they know that in case this comes then this will agree with the EU accession of the Ukrainians will agree with the war, will agree with the migration stuff, will agree with the Hungarian financial contribution to Ukraine. For Ukraine, it is crucial that we lose the elections and they are interfering really, really badly and they are interfering in a very shameful and very brutal and cruel way. Therefore the foreign minister just compared us with the slaves of Hitler which is something that goes very far and, and that shows an absolute lack of respect towards Hungary and the Hungarian people.