At a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Montenegro, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said that Hungary already considers Montenegro an ally, because both countries’ soldiers are serving together in Afghanistan, and the country contributes significantly to the region's security.
According to a statement by the Hungarian foreign ministry, Mr. Szijjártó joined the Croatian, Polish and Romanian foreign ministers in expressing their support for Montenegro's accession to NATO.
The Minister declared that Montenegro unquestionably deserves to be accepted as a NATO member, and its government has made every effort to meet the requirements. Montenegro should be invited into NATO by December this year, he said, and if this does not happen it could be detrimental for the credibility of NATO members. Mr. Szijjártó added that it would be unacceptable to require public support for NATO accession to be above fifty per cent. Hungary's experience showed that inviting a country to join NATO boosts public support for accession, and he added that this would be especially true in the case of Montenegro, which has already been rejected once.
With reference to the situation in Ukraine and the extraordinary wave of immigration, the Minister said that since World War II Europe has not faced security challenges like those it is facing now, which is why Montenegro’s NATO membership is more important than ever.