Hungary’s strategy amid the changing global order
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Loading... - Jerome Makris
- 30 Mar 2023
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‘For a small, export-oriented country, the name of the game is connectivity’
Balázs Orbán is a Hungarian lawyer, political scientist, and member of parliament who serves as political director to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. He is chairman of the board at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium, Hungary’s leading talent management institution and knowledge center, and he leads the advisory board of the University of Public Service in Budapest.
Adriel Kasonta: Hungary has been a staunch supporter of a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine from Day 1. The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been highlighting the fact that anti-Russian sanctions do more harm to those who impose them than to the country that they are supposed to harm and punish.
What is the logic of Brussels continuing with this failed policy? What is the European Union’s endgame here?
Balázs Orbán: Just like other Western countries, Hungary condemned the Russian aggression and launched the biggest humanitarian action in our country’s history, which has helped more than 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees so far. Besides, we support the Ukrainian state’s functioning with a package of €18 billion put together by EU member states.
At the same time, we have consistently held a dissenting opinion about the sanctions policy since 2014, and when it came to new round of sanctions, we put Hungary’s interests first. This is why we have not approved any sanctions that would threaten Hungary’s energy security.
Above all, however, we think that the sanctions policy is a failure. The only result so far has been skyrocketing energy prices, but most important, it has not stopped the war or contained Russia. For a similar reason, we choose not to deliver weapons to Ukraine along with the other Western countries.
Hungary denies that war is the only way to bring peace. On the contrary, we need an immediate ceasefire and the start of peace talks, because this is the only way to stop this devastating war. Read More…
