BUDAPEST, April 12. /TASS/. Hungary expects that Belarus will do its best to prevent further escalation of the armed conflict in Ukraine and will make efforts towards its peaceful settlement, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told journalists after meeting in Budapest with his Belarusian counterpart Sergey Aleinik.

"The danger of war escalating is higher now than ever before," the top diplomat said. "It is in our fundamental interests to avoid escalation, and that is why I used today's meeting to ask [the Belarusian] minister to do everything possible to do so and to reduce the risk of expanding hostilities," Szijjarto said.

The minister also stressed that Hungary intends to keep channels of communication with Belarus open, including in order to achieve the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict. "As long as the channels of communication remain open, we hold out hope for peace," he explained, reiterating that at some point Minsk was host to talks on the Ukrainian settlement. "We Hungarians hope that the peace talks may resume at the earliest possible moment," Szijjarto said.

In turn, his Belarusian counterpart emphasized the peace-loving nature of his country's foreign policy, including the desire to settle any differences through negotiations. "We don't want to attack anyone," Aleinik assured.