As expected, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is continuing the peace mission he started in Kyiv last week at the NATO summit in Washington, DC. Meanwhile, the defence alliance is increasing its support for Ukraine, with Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg calling the path to NATO membership for the war-torn country irreversible.
Eight prominent British and American public figures have published an open letter in the Financial Times calling for an immediate ceasefire and peace talks in Ukraine. According to one of the authors, their letter was influenced by Viktor Orbán’s peace mission launched last week.
A rare opinion piece has been published by Die Welt recently discussing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s peace mission that kicked off last week. The article concludes that Orbán ‘deserves a chance’ and is doing more for peace than those in Washington and Brussels who criticize him.
In December last year a new law created a distinct category for ‘EU minorities’ in Ukraine (such as the Hungarian and Romanian ethnic minorities) that now have access to more privileges than for instance the Russian minority. Later, as a sign of goodwill to better relations, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó visited Ukraine. Now, with the meeting between Orbán and Zelenskyy the two country’s relationship is officially warming up. If in the long-term Budapest does manage to considerably contribute to peace between Russia and Ukraine, as it clearly intends to, it might have a long-lasting positive impact on bilateral relations.
A clip of PM Orbán of Hungary citing George Soros’ European migration plan published in 2015 in Project Syndicate was recently shared on the social media site X in reference to the election results in the United Kingdom and France, and garnered over 25,000 likes within 12 hours.
It is important for Hungarians that China advocates for peace in the world, stated Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Monday in Beijing, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the prospects for a settlement in Ukraine and their countries’ bilateral relations in Moscow on Friday. The visit to Russia was the second stop of Orbán’s peace mission, following talks in Kyiv on Tuesday.
Viktor Orbán’s plane had not even landed in Moscow when the Brussels elite were already criticizing the Hungarian Prime Minister for his visit to Russia. First, Charles Michel, and later Josep Borrell, distanced themselves from Orbán’s trip, stating that the prime minister was not representing the EU in Russia—although this was never claimed to be the case to begin with.
‘If the Hungarian government’s foreign policy in recent months had truly been to serve Russian interests, then, for example, the NATO secretary general would not have left Budapest with a free hand from Hungary to negotiate and conduct NATO training and support for Ukraine, as well as to undertake a long-term financial commitment required for military support, even if Hungary will not itself participate in these NATO efforts.’
In his regular Friday interview with public Kossuth radio Orbán emphasized that Hungary, as the rotating president of the European Union, does not have the mandate to negotiate peace in the Russo–Ukrainian war on behalf of the EU. However, he can assess the situation to understand each party’s position.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.
