“There an increasing divide in Europe between people who are pro-immigration and those who view immigration as a security risk”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI on Tuesday after attending the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia.
In his telephone statement, the Minister said: “The dispute is becoming increasingly serious, and is further exacerbated by an extremely arbitrary interpretation of solidarity”.
“Several European countries are arbitrarily selecting between the various elements of solidarity, and in a way that is endangering Europe, because it handles solidarity and security totally separately”, the Minister stressed.
However, the Hungarian Foreign minister said that in his opinion “solidarity and security should go hand-in-hand; one cannot exist without the other”, he said.
“Solidarity that undermines the continent’s security is not solidarity, it is damaging to Europe”, he underlined.
“Hungary is not just talking, it is also taking action”, Mr. Szijjártó said, adding that “In addition to having protected its own borders, and with them Western Europe, it has spared no expense or manpower to provide significant assistance to the countries of the Western Balkans to enable them to also protect their borders”.
“This year, a total of 367 Hungarian police officers have served or are serving in the Western Balkans, the largest number of 226 in Macedonia, in addition to 105 in Serbia and 26 I Bulgaria”, the Minister detailed.
Mr. Szijjártó told the press that during his meeting with Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov he had made it clear that Hungary is also prepared to provide a police presence along Western Balkan borders next year.
“Firstly, to enable the countries of the Western Balkans to protect their borders, and secondly to ensure that the Western Balkan migration route is successfully kept closed”, the Minister explained, adding that “Our goal is to ensure that a possible new wave of migration does not reach Hungary’s southern border”.
“Hungary is expressing its solidarity in defending Europe by not just protecting its own borders”, Mr. Szijjártó declared.
The Hungarian Foreign Minister conducted several bilateral meetings with his European colleagues on the sidelines of the Forum, including Montenegro’s Minister of EU Affairs Aleksandar Andrija Pejović, Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec and Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar, all of whom agreed with Mr. Szijjártó that the integration process of the Western Balkans must be accelerated in view of the fact that this is an extremely important security issue for the European Union.
“If we can integrate the Western Balkan region into the EU more rapidly, it could significantly alleviate the historical conflicts and tensions that could currently easily give arise to situations in the Western Balkans that would represent a security risk to Europe”, the Minister stressed.
The Bled Strategic Forum was first organised by the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2006, and in Mr. Szijjártó’s view has since grown to become one of the most important diplomatic events in the region. This year’s 12 conferences strove to provide answers to the changing world’s many questions, including climate change and various security and technical challenges. The conferences were attended by almost a thousand people from seventy countries. The Forum was also attended by many high-ranking officials, including First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in addition to twelve foreign ministers.