BUDAPEST, July 16. /TASS/. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who is attending UN events in New York, said he plans to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
"Today I will meet with my counterpart Sergey Lavrov," the Hungarian minister said in an interview with M1 television.
He added that he will also have meetings in New York with one of the UN under-secretary-generals and the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Szijjarto signaled that the main issue of these discussions will be the conflict in Ukraine, which requires a peaceful settlement at the negotiating table. He also had phone talks with the Chinese foreign minister on Tuesday.
"We agreed with Foreign Minister Wang Yi that it is necessary to redouble diplomatic efforts to establish peace," Szijjarto said.
He also said Hungary supports maintaining open channels of communication with Russia in order to resolve the Ukrainian conflict, and proposes that other EU countries follow this approach.
"We must bring Europe back to its senses, return to the path of diplomatic solutions, restore the legitimacy of using diplomatic channels, reopen diplomatic communication channels with Russia, and we must also continue talking to Ukrainians, because this is the only way we can achieve an end to the war," the minister said.
Mission to continue
"If someone now wants to hold peace talks [on Ukraine], the legitimacy of using diplomatic channels is practically called into question," he said. "This is unacceptable."
According to Szijjarto, that’s because Europe is following in the wake of American policy and simply does not want to hold negotiations to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.
The peacekeeping mission of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who visited Kiev, Moscow, Beijing and Washington within 10 days, faced fierce attacks.
"But this will not stop us from continuing our peace mission," the foreign minister said. "The overwhelming majority of countries want peace and do not understand why Europe has no peace strategy and why it is copying the strategy of the United States."
Szijjarto also said the UN, which was created after World War II to prevent and eliminate international disagreements, should play a more active role in resolving the Ukrainian conflict. The minister said he planned to discuss the issue at a meeting with a United Nations under-secretary-general.