Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjártó met with United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman in New York on Tuesday to discuss the issue of European immigration and the releasing of UN documents relating to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
Mr. Szijjártó and Mr. Feltman also discussed the United Nations’ general preventive diplomatic and mediation activities. Also present at the meeting was special advisor Karen Abu Zayd, whom UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently entrusted with preparing the UN summit on migrants and immigrants to be held in September.
Mr. Szijjártó told Hungarian news agency MTI that he had mentioned the issue of documents relating to the 1956 Revolution. We will be commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Revolution this year, and this is why he had very firmly asked the United Nations Under-Secretary-General to lift the confidentiality of 1956 documents so they can be fully accessed and researched, the Minister told the press.
With relation to the migration crisis in Europe, Mr. Szijjártó explained that there are currently some 60 million people worldwide who are living displaced from their homes and there are three reasons for this: military conflicts, economic underdevelopment and global climate change and its consequences. The Minister asked that the UN take on a more determined and forceful role in these three areas.
On the subject of the migration crisis, Mr. Szijjártó said: “I asked the UN officials to not fall for the hypocritical lure of European politics and to not confuse refugees with immigrants. Europe is currently dealing with an immigration problem”.
From New York, the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade travelled on to Moscow, where he will be holding negotiations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov parallel to Wednesday’s meeting between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Russian President Vladimir Putin.