07/05/2024 – 12:23
With Hungary holding the rotating presidency of the European Union, the autocrat visits his Russian counterpart in an attempt to mediate the war in Ukraine. After visiting the Ukrainian capital Kiev earlier this week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met in Moscow on Friday (05/07) with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an attempt to act as a mediator in the war in Ukraine.
It is the third time Orbán has met Putin since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The Hungarian autocrat has blocked European Union aid to Kiev and imposed sanctions on Russia.
“I understand that this time you have come not only as a long-standing partner, but also as president of the European Council,” Putin told Orbán. “I hope you will tell me what your position is.” [em relação à Ucrânia] and that of European partners,” he added.
Orbán said his country would use its six-month rotating presidency of the European Union to promote a negotiated peace in Ukraine.
“You can’t make peace from a comfortable armchair in Brussels… you can’t sit back and wait for the war to miraculously end,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
NATO informed about Orbán’s visit to Moscow
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the military alliance had been informed in advance about the trip. Orban was travelling in his capacity as Hungarian prime minister and would not represent the organisation, he added.
Hungary joined NATO in 1999, and Orbán took power in 2010. Unlike other leaders of the alliance, the Hungarian leader has continued to maintain close ties with Russia even as the war rages. The 32 leaders of the military alliance are due to meet next week for their annual summit in Washington.
Criticism from other EU leaders
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned that “appeasement will not stop Putin.” “Only unity and determination will pave the way for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine,” she wrote in X.
European diplomacy chief Josep Borrell was more blunt in saying that Orbán was not representing the European Union during his visit. He described the meeting as a bilateral meeting between Moscow and Budapest.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the bloc’s “clear message is that Ukraine can count on our solidarity, and that Putin should not expect a weakening of our solidarity and our support.”
Hungary’s six-month EU presidency gives the Central European country influence over the bloc’s agenda and priorities during those months.
sf/ra (AFP, ots)
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