(LifeSiteNews) — Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has expressed astonishment that there has been no investigation on the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines.
In an interview published on June 24 with the Chinese government-backed CGTN, he asks “The question is how on earth it is possible that someone blows up critical infrastructure on the territory of Europe…and no one has a say. No one carries out an investigation.”
He then speaks of Hungarian efforts to safeguard their energy supply: “Together with Russia, Turkey, Bulgaria and Serbia we have built a pipeline called Turkstream.”
Szijjarto explains that the pipeline delivers gas from Russia to Hungary through the Black Sea, avoiding the transit through Ukraine. Yet Hungary paid a price for hedging its national security bets.
“When we built that a couple of years ago we were threatened heavily by our ‘friends and allies’ – even by sanctions,” he said.
Why would the EU and NATO allies of Hungary take such a stance? The reason is simple. It was unacceptable to “build such a pipeline which doesn’t go through Ukraine.”
“For us, it’s obvious that our own energy security comes first. So we would like to build a pipeline which we consider safe,” Szijjarto continued.
“If you don’t have a gas supply, you don’t have industry.”
The foresight of the Hungarians seems to have been vindicated. Had they remained dependent on Nord Stream, they may now be facing the same dire consequences as Germany.
Germany’s rapid decline
In a recent statement on June 13, German Energy Minister Robert Habeck said that German industry may come to a standstill without Russian gas.
“We’re not yet out of the woods,” he said at an economic conference. “The favorable situation mustn’t lead to us making the same mistake again of forgetting what the threat is.”
Ten days later on June 23, Siemens Energy – the German energy giant – posted dire losses of 37% in one day.
This was the greatest ever one-day fall in its stock value. The firm, according to Die Welt’s Holger Zschäpitz, “issued a profit warning & withdrew earnings guidance, citing issues at its Gamesa wind-turbine division.”
READ: Germany’s economic and moral collapse is a warning we must heed
Turkstream threatened
Szijjarto did not mention that in September 2022 the Russians claimed to have foiled a plot to blow up the Turkstream pipeline on which his nation relies.
Reported by Bloomberg on September 22, the claims were viewed with a dismissive skepticism. The response of the Ukrainian regime was repeated in support of the incredulous reception of the Russian allegations of a secret plot of sabotage.
The Russian Federal Security Service, known as FSB, “prevented an attempt by the Ukrainian special services to commit a sabotage and terrorist act at the facility of the oil and gas complex that supplies energy to Turkey and Europe,” according to a statement on its website Thursday. A Russian citizen was detained, who the nation’s security service claimed was recruited by Ukraine’s special service.
A representative of Ukraine’s State Security Service said the organization wouldn’t comment on what he described as fantasies of the Russian special services.
Four days later, the Nord Stream pipelines would be attacked.
Security-minded
Szijjarto’s remarks are likely to bring further controversy to Hungary’s door, as he explains the difference of opinion between his government — and that of a U.S.-led G7 that is increasingly hostile to China.
Speaking of the policy announced by the Group of Seven in May 2023 to “derisk” and not “decouple” from China, Szijjarto reaches the unsurprising conclusion that he sees no reason to follow it.
The antagonistic strategy towards China pressed by Biden’s National Security chief, Jake Sullivan, makes little sense, he says.
“We have never looked at China as if it was a risk or a threat. We have always rejected this kind of approach. In Europe, therefore, we can’t understand why we speak about decoupling or de-risking, because if there’s no risk you do not have to ‘de-risk,'”
He thinks that cooperation with China, and not hostility, is the best way forward for the security of his nation, saying that “Hungary doesn’t want NATO to turn into an anti-China bloc.”
With friends like these
It is well known now that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been interested in sabotaging Russian gas supplies to Europe since the 1980s. He wrote a book, “Ally versus Ally” on the subject.
In 1987, as the Reagan administration sought to intensify efforts to starve the Russian economy with trade embargoes, a young Antony Blinken published a book about the significance of Russian gas supplies to Europe for the anti-Russian alliance. pic.twitter.com/tJAPkPH5df
— Frank Wright (@frankwrighter) June 10, 2023
Both Under-Secretary of State Victoria Nuland — who orchestrated the 2014 coup in Ukraine – and President Biden himself have publicly vowed to end the Nord Stream pipelines.
“If Russia invades – there will no longer be a NordStream” — Biden, speaking alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
Szijjarto is be well aware of this, and likely has the U.S. in mind when he says, “…the safe supply of energy to a country is a matter of sovereignty because if there’s no safe supply, then the given country is not free to make decisions on its own.”
“[It is then] being dependent on… external factors, so, therefore, safe supply of energy is a security issue and a sovereignty issue.”
He has also witnessed the fate of Germany – the former powerhouse of Europe – whose rapid and managed decline effectively replaces European sovereignty and competition with dependence on the U.S.
Hungary is one nation that is prepared to speak in defense of sovereignty.
“An attack on a critical infrastructure which ensures the safe supply of any country must be considered as an attack on the sovereignty of that given country or of those given countries. Nord Stream is critical infrastructure for Europe and exploding or blowing up a critical infrastructure is a terrorist act,” Szijjarto said.
“According to our understanding … there has been no comprehensive, unbiased, impartial international investigation of this action. This is outrageous. This is a scandal.”
READ: The EU is ramping up its attacks on Viktor Orbán’s pro-family Hungary
The reasons for the ongoing harassment and isolation of Hungary are obvious. It is a nation which commits the unforgivable crime of having a government willing to defend its people, its Christian faith, and to uphold its claims to national sovereignty.
Hungary’s diplomatic path is one leading example of the consequences of the neoconservative project that has ruined the West. With friends like these, who needs enemies?