BUDAPEST, July 10. /TASS/. Military aid to Ukraine is not listed as a duty of NATO members and the attempts of the alliance’s leadership to translate it into an indicator of loyalty towards allies is simply hypocrisy, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.
The top Hungarian diplomat, who is in President Viktor Orban’s delegation at the NATO summit in Washington, pointed out that the summit is expected to adopt a decision on providing Ukraine $40 billion in military aid in 2025 and the NATO leadership wants all the members to make their own contributions to this. Moreover, now it is viewed as a criterion of loyalty, Szijjarto said, adding that "a good ally is now considered to be the one that helps Ukraine the most."
"However, Ukraine is not a NATO member, and NATO security does not depend on how strong Ukraine is, but on how strong we are," the foreign minister said in an interview with the Hungarian television channel M1, recalling that so far, only 22 of 32 member countries spend the required 2% of their GDP on defense, whereas the rest do not comply with this commitment.
"So, it is also some kind of hypocrisy," Szijjarto said in regard to the NATO leadership’s position. "NATO defense capability depends on our own strength, not on the strength of Ukraine, because NATO is not an offensive but a defensive alliance that was established to defend itself from attacks from outside," he said.
The top diplomat reiterated that Hungary would do its best to keep NATO out of the conflict in Ukraine and it did not intend to take part in the alliance’s mission to coordinate military aid and train soldiers for the Ukrainian army.
"We have come to a clear agreement, and the current secretary general and the future secretary general [of NATO] have agreed to view this as a must-do for themselves: Hungarian soldiers do not participate in such operations, they cannot use the territory of Hungary for such operations, and they cannot use Hungarian budgetary resources for such operations," he said.
In addition, Szijjarto said that Hungary would not allocate funds for long-term military aid to Ukraine.
"I do think it is dangerous not because it is a terribly large amount of money, but because of the prospect. If you draw up a long-term plan for funding the war, this means that you think it will last for a long time, and that is the problem," the minister said.