Hun­gar­i­an min­is­ter prais­es Trump for rais­ing issue of per­se­cut­ed Chris­tians to inter­na­tion­al polit­i­cal agenda

For­eign Min­is­ter Péter Szi­jjártó praised the Trump admin­is­tra­tion on Tues­day for rais­ing the issue of per­se­cut­ed Chris­tians to the inter­na­tion­al polit­i­cal agenda. 

Szi­jjártó said on Face­book dur­ing an online meet­ing of the Inter­na­tion­al Reli­gious Free­dom or Belief Alliance that had US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump not put this issue on the agen­da, then the coun­tries com­mit­ted to pro­tect­ing Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ties could not have been as suc­cess­ful as they had proven to be. 

He high­light­ed the role of Sec­re­tary of State Mike Pom­peo and expressed hope that coop­er­a­tion between Hun­gary and the US in pro­tect­ing Chris­t­ian and oth­er reli­gious com­mu­ni­ties would con­tin­ue. Szi­jjártó said the world was fac­ing great chal­lenges includ­ing the nov­el coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic, ter­ror­ism and migration. 

He added that the lat­ter two were close­ly linked because ter­ror­ist organ­i­sa­tions had been forc­ing peace­ful peo­ple to leave their home and uncon­trolled migra­tion flows had made it eas­i­er for ter­ror­ists to freely move around the world. 

“We in the Euro­pean Union have sad expe­ri­ences when it comes to the mas­sive migra­to­ry flows” and the enor­mous risks they involve, he said, cit­ing recent ter­ror­ist attacks in France and Aus­tria. Szi­jjártó said that unfor­tu­nate­ly Europe had to face anti-Chris­t­ian ide­olo­gies and attacks becom­ing increas­ing­ly accept­ed by the “lib­er­al mainstream”. 

Hungary’s gov­ern­ment has helped more than 100,000 per­se­cut­ed Chris­tians in 27 coun­tries to stay in their place of birth in the Mid­dle East, Africa and Asia through a scheme dubbed Hun­gary Helps, he said. The gov­ern­ment has allo­cat­ed 44 mil­lion dol­lars toward pro­vid­ing accom­mo­da­tion, edu­ca­tion and health infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment in these coun­tries, he added. Szi­jjártó said Hungary’s help could be all the more effec­tive because the mon­ey was being sent direct­ly to the com­mu­ni­ties, with­out the use of inter­na­tion­al aid organ­i­sa­tions as inter­me­di­aries. He wel­comed coop­er­a­tion with Esto­nia, Poland and Greece and said that coor­di­na­tion in offer­ing human­i­tar­i­an aid could be helped by an advis­er group with mem­bers of the Inter­na­tion­al Reli­gious Free­dom or Belief Alliance shar­ing infor­ma­tion with each oth­er. Orbán: “I have always been for Trump, he is a friend of Hungary”

Source: abouthun​gary​.com