Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó of Hungary has published a lengthy post on his Facebook page about the upcoming meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium today, 16 December. This is the last one of these meetings this year, meaning that it will also be the last one held under the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the EU.
‘The proposals on the agenda [of the Foreign ministers’ meeting] still leave the majority unsatisfied and still not coming to terms with the new reality. Even as Christmas is approaching, it cannot dampen the thirst for war. Even though the possibility of a Christmas ceasefire and mass prisoner exchanges is on the table, today they [the Brussels leadership] want to free up more than €6 billion again for arms supplies, they are pushing the Ukrainians to send 18-year-old boys to the front, and they want to put Georgian officials on the sanctions list because the Georgian people dared to elect a sovereign government for themselves,’ Minister Szijjártó wrote. In his post, he is referring to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s suggestion of lowering the conscription age to 18 from the current 25 in Ukraine.
‘There will be a big fight today, but we will not give up our pro-peace position: we need a ceasefire in Ukraine, not more weapons!,’ the Minister concluded.
Just like Minister Szijjártó, Prime Minister Orbán has also been strongly pushing for a negotiated peace in the Russo–Ukrainian war; and even a ceasefire as early as this Christmas. Last week, the Prime Minister held a lengthy phone conversation with President Vladimir Putin of Russia on the issue. President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, however, has categorically rejected even having a similar discussion with PM Orbán, as Minister Szijjártó revealed on Hungarian public radio on Sunday, 15 December. He did concede that the rejection was ‘polite,’ however, he also described it as ‘completely unprecedented in diplomacy’.
Later today, Minister Szijjártó followed up with another post on his Facebook page about the meeting in Brussels, with a similarly pessimistic tone. He wrote: ‘Normally today we should finally be talking about a ceasefire instead of arms transfers, but as I am looking around here…’
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