Orban says Trump’s ‘going to solve it!’ during Ukraine ‘peace mission’
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Viktor Orban met Donald Trump in Florida in the latest leg of his controversial “peace mission” for Ukraine, saying the former president is “going to solve it!” in reference to the war.
The Hungarian prime minister had already sparked anger in the West by holding talks with Vladimir Putin in Moscow and his close ally Xi Jinping in China less than a week ago after meeting Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.
Mr Orban is an outlier among Nato and EU members for his Ukrainian ceasefire demands, cosy relationship with Putin, refusal to send weapons to Kyiv and opposition to sanctions against the Kremlin.
The strongman was in the US for a Nato summit aimed at demonstrating Western unity and resolve in the face of Russian aggression in Ukraine.
After the summit he flew to Florida and Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, without holding talks with Joe Biden, with whom he has a strained relationship after the president criticised his backsliding on democratic standards.
Mr Orban, who has repeatedly backed Trump in November’s US presidential election, posted a photo of himself beaming with the Republican candidate and both giving the thumbs up after the meeting on Thursday.
“We discussed ways to make peace. The good news of the day: he’s going to solve it!,” Mr Orban said, as he hailed his “peace mission 5.0”.
“Thank you Viktor,” Trump replied on social media.
“There must be PEACE, and quickly. Too many people have died in a war that should have never started!” he added.
Mr Orban, who has forged close ties with US conservatives, has previously said that Mr Trump would end the war in Ukraine soon after winning the White House.
Jake Sullivan, Mr Biden’s national security adviser, said on Thursday: “The US position, the Biden administration position is: Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. So whatever adventurism is being undertaken without Ukrainians’ consent or support is not something that’s consistent with our policy or the policy of the United States.”
The Nato summit was overshadowed by fears over what a Trump victory would mean for US support for Ukraine, which was recently delayed for months by Republicans in Congress
In his first term, Trump strongly criticised his European allies for failing to meet defence spending targets and recently suggested the US would not defend Nato members from Russia unless they paid up.
European leaders have distanced themselves from Mr Orban’s freelancing, which comes as Hungary holds the rotating six month presidency of the EU, which means it chairs meetings on policy between member states in Brussels.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor, stressed that Mr Orban’s visit to Moscow did not come with an EU mandate and that he was not representing the bloc.
There is frustration at Mr Orban’s hijacking of the presidency, which is traditionally a bloodless, bureaucratic role as an honest broker in internal negotiations on EU legislation.
Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland plan a partial boycott of ministerial meetings planned in Budapest in July for the presidency.
They will only send officials rather than ministers to the event in protest in a sign of their displeasure over the so-called peace mission.
President Zelensky also criticised the July 5 Moscow visit, which came three days before a massive missile attack on Ukraine which killed at least 28 and hit a children’s hospital .
Mr Orban embarked on his peace mission less than a month after he suffered his worst election result in 15 years in European Parliament elections.
His Fidesz party remained the largest Hungarian parliament but the pro-EU opposition sapped its support.
After the elections, Mr Orban played an important role in the formation of a new hard-Right and Eurosceptic group, which has become the third largest in the European Parliament.
