Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.
Thierry Monasse | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The European Union should have “remoted” the Ukraine struggle, Hungary’s foreign minister instructed CNBC in an interview broadcast Wednesday.
The “European Union should have remoted this struggle in Ukraine, however as a substitute of that [the] European Union has globalized the struggle,” Péter Szijjártó stated from the Belt and Road Summit in Hong Kong.
Szijjártó criticized Europe’s response to the battle, saying it was inflicting division between the East and West.
“One of the international impacts of the struggle is that the world appears to be divided into blocks once more and that is unhealthy as a result of if there is not any communication between international locations, in case there is not any cooperation between the international locations, then you definitely mainly surrender the hope for peace,” he stated.
The European Union didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for remark.
This isn’t the first time Hungary’s foreign minister has condemned the EU’s handling of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Szijjártó stated in January that Brussels’ sanctions towards Russia had clearly “not fulfilled expectations” and had broken European economies greater than Russia.
“Russia’s financial system isn’t on its knees, undoubtedly. We can have completely different assessments of how badly they carry out however they are not on their knees, and the struggle isn’t coming to its finish. And Europe’s financial system is struggling extra from sanctions than the Russian financial system,” he instructed CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
‘Europe is in a nasty form’
Speaking from the Belt and Road Summit, Szijjártó highlighted how profitable he thought the Belt and Road Initiative, a spending plan intended to strengthen trade infrastructure between China and round 150 different international locations, can be.
“BRI isn’t solely going to outlive, however goes to be increasingly more profitable … as a result of all the members, together with the European international locations, are taking a whole lot of advantages out of it,” he stated.
“Europe is in a nasty form, economically and security-wise as properly, so we want companions of cooperation who’re profitable, who’re giving up impetus, who’re giving us the likelihood to develop extra quickly,” he added.
The initiative was initially launched in 2013 by Chinese President Xi Jinping, however the formidable technique has met a myriad of hurdles in the final decade, each politically and logistically.