Budapest not to block extension of EU sanctions against Russia - Hungarian foreign minister
MOSCOW. June 5 (Interfax) - Hungary will not block the extension of the EU sanctions against Russia, but calls on its colleagues in the European Union to discuss the issue more rationally, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said.
"We made it very clear many times that we on our own cannot and will not put our veto on the prolongation, because we do not want to break the unity of the European Union," Szijjarto said in an interview with Interfax.
The Hungarian foreign minister said that "rational debate" is needed on this issue.
"So far what we had not had is a rational debate about the impact of the sanctions. Our position is 'yes, we would like to have a rational debate on what kind of impact sanctions have," he said.
"The interest of Europe will be a pragmatic cooperation between Russia and the European Union, between the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the European Union," Szijjarto said.
"Unfortunately, we have to understand that currently the political circumstances are not given to that," he said.
"If we base our position only on facts and of we do not go emotional at the very beginning, than it is obvious that the sanctions have failed both economically, because they have caused many damages to the European economy, and politically as well, because they did not help to go towards the full implementation of the Minsk Agreements," Szijjarto said.
"Of course, everyone, in Hungary or in European Union countries, wants the Minsk Agreements be fulfilled as soon as possible, to be fully implemented as soon as possible, but sanctions did not help this way," the minister said.