Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has told CGTN that the UN General Assembly (UNGA) must take the opportunity it "missed" last year to bring peace to Ukraine – but has criticized Western powers for discouraging dialogue with Russia, and insisted that sanctions don't work.
Speaking to CGTN in New York shortly before the UNGA debate, which begins in earnest on Wednesday, Szijjarto insisted a peaceful resolution should be the primary aim of talks.
"Our major point this year is that we have to make peace as soon as possible," he insisted. "We missed this opportunity last year. And if we put together how many people had to die since the last General Assembly, what kind of destruction has taken place since the last General Assembly? How many families have [been] torn apart?"
Szijjarto says the UN is the perfect place for dialogue to end disputes: "The United Nations has been created to serve as a platform for countries which might even be in a war with each other, which might look at enemies at each other, which might have serious debates with each other."
Hungary's Foreign Minister spoke to CGTN's Xu Dezhi ahead of Wednesday's UNGA debate./CGTN
However, Szijjarto accused some Western authorities of restricting Budapest's attempts to have dialogue with Moscow.
"Our allies from NATO, from the U.S., firstly from the European Union… they tried to encourage us not to meet representatives of Russia and Belarus," he said. "But I think this is a cul-de-sac, a dead-end street.
"If you are not able to reach out to those with whom we have conflicts, if we are not able to discuss these conflicts, then we will never find a peaceful solution. And then more people will die and more destruction will take place."
Szijjarto, who has been Hungary's foreign minister since 2014, also criticized the imposition of sanctions and the provision of weaponry.
"The European Union has contributed to globalize the conflict," he said. "Massive weapon deliveries have been started, sanctions have been created, and the impacts of the sanctions and the weapon deliveries are global because the sanctions have caused inflation globally, have caused a crisis in energy supply, have caused huge increase in food prices.
"And this has become not only a European problem, this has become a global issue – and unfortunately, the impact of the war has been globalized. Now, the question is whether we are able to keep it as it is now or the war itself will be globalized as well. That would be the real tragedy."
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