“A new world order is coming about in which maintaining peace and security requires much more effort than before”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó stressed at the United Nations General Assembly’s two-day thematic debate on international security and the global organisation’s peacekeeping activities, which began on Tuesday.
According to Mr. Szijjártó, the greatest threat today is posed by the growing network of terrorist organisations.
In his speech, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade spoke about the fundamental changes that are shaping the world and as a result of which the global security situation has also changed.
“Today, it is no exaggeration to talk about the coming about of a new world order, just as it is also no exaggeration that this is the most serious state of affairs since the Second World War”, Mr. Szijjártó said, stressing that: “in this new world order, maintaining peace and security requires much more effort than before”.
“This also requires a new approach on the part of the United Nations”, the Minister declared, explaining that the UN must place greater emphasis not only on peacekeeping, but also on preventing conflicts.
“Hungary supports UN reform processes that place a greater emphasis on efforts to avoid conflicts, in addition to peacekeeping”, Mr. Szijjártó said, explaining Hungary’s standpoint.
The Foreign Minister also explained that in Hungary’s view the increasing network of terrorist organisation poses the greatest threat to the world today. These terrorist organisations are paralyzing numerous countries and “we know of tens of millions of people who either live under the threat of terrorism or are in the process of fleeing from such zones”, he stated.
According to Mr. Szijjártó, changing the situation requires the defeat of the Islamic State terrorist organisation, and Hungary is also taking part in this battle. The number of Hungarian soldiers serving in the coalition fighting against the Islamic State will increase to 150 by the end of the year, he stated.
In his speech, the Hungarian Foreign Minister also addressed the situation in Europe, stressing that the Islamic State poses a particular threat to Europe, because the terrorists have exploited the wave of immigration and the fact that they could get into Europe easily thanks to “hypocritical and incompetent European politics”. “Accordingly, the security situation in Europe is getting worse and the threat of terrorism is increasing”, Mr. Szijjártó said in analysis of the situation.
“Europe must protect itself and must regain its capability to protect its borders, especially in view of the fact that the situation to the south and southeast of the continent is becoming increasingly dangerous”, he declared. According to Mr. Szijjártó, 30-35 million people are living in the threatened region and for precisely this reason could decide to set out for Europe at any moment.
“For this reason we must step up the fight against the Islamic State terrorist organisation and must assist those states – Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraqi Kurdistan – that are caring for people who are fleeing the terror”, the Foreign Minister stressed. However, Mr. Szijjártó also felt it was important to draw attention to the fact that “security and sustainable development go hand in hand, and so beneficiary countries should be required to apply funding in such a way that those resources contribute to eliminating the reasons that are forcing people to flee”.
In closing, Mr. Szijjártó stressed that Hungary is ready to provide assistance and will be spending a quarter of a million dollars on UN peacekeeping activities this year, in addition to which 91 Hungarian soldiers are currently serving with peacekeeping forces.
Following his speech, the Foreign Minister attended a working lunch at which the election process for the prospective Director-General and the tasks awaiting the organisation’s next leader were debated.
Mr. Szijjártó told Hungarian news agency MTI by phone: According to Hungary’s standpoint the global organisation’s new Director-General should come from the Central or Eastern European region, especially in view of the fact that the region has not “provided” a UN Director-General in recent history.