- Orbán claims Trump has peace plans
- Urges EU to reopen talks with Russia
- EU leaders criticize Hungary’s diplomacy
Viktor Orbán claimed in a letter to a key EU committee that Donald Trump has “detailed and well-founded” plans for peace between Russia and Ukraine, escalating tensions over the Hungarian prime minister’s diplomatic freelancing.
Orbán, who met Trump at his Palm Beach compound last week, stated in a letter to the European Council, which includes the bloc’s 27 member leaders, that the Republican presidential contender was willing to work as a peace mediator “immediately” following his election.
The “likely outcome” of a Trump victory means that the EU should reopen direct diplomatic contact with Russia and “high-level negotiations” with China, Orbán wrote in a letter to Council President Charles Michel, as initially reported by the Financial Times.
The Hungarian prime minister stated that if Trump wins, the financial weight of supporting Ukraine’s military effort will transfer to the EU’s disadvantage.
I am confident that if President Trump wins, the balance of the financial burden between the US and the EU would shift dramatically to the EU’s disadvantage in terms of financial support for Ukraine, he said.
Orbán further stated that after recent meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, “the general observation” was that “the intensity of the military conflict will radically escalate in the near future”.
The letter came after the European Commission decided to skip meetings hosted by Budapest as part of Hungary’s EU chairmanship.
According to a spokesperson for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in light of recent developments marking the start of the Hungarian presidency, the president has decided that @EU_Commission will be represented at the senior civil servant level only during informal Council meetings.
That means von der Leyen and her staff, including the EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, will not attend “informal” EU meetings in Hungary. Still, formal discussions in Brussels and Luxembourg are anticipated to proceed with the regular attendees.
The unusual rejection comes after some EU member states reportedly decided to send lower-level officials to EU activities in Hungary.
The commission has also canceled von der Leyen’s and her team of EU commissioners’ travel to Budapest, which was scheduled for the first few days of July.
Soon after Hungary assumed the rotating presidency of the EU Council of Ministers on July 1, Viktor Orbán travelled to Kyiv, Moscow, Beijing, Azerbaijan, and the United States on a “peace mission” tour that enraged other EU leaders.
The EU presidency gives Orbán no formal authority to speak for the EU. Other European leaders have severely denounced the visits, forming a nearly unified chorus of displeasure. Slovakia, governed by Orbán’s friend Robert Fico, was the only EU member state not speaking out against Hungary during a top diplomats meeting last week.
In response to the leaked letter on X, the Hungarian prime minister’s political director, Balázs Orbán (who is unrelated), emphasized the message that will irritate Hungary’s EU colleagues. Instead of following the US’s pro-war policy, #Europe requires a sovereign and independent strategy centred on a ceasefire and the beginning of peace talks, he said.
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Separately, he congratulated JD Vance, the hard-right Ohio senator who was chosen as Trump’s running mate on Tuesday and is a vocal opponent of aid to Ukraine. “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another,” Vance stated on a podcast last year.
Balázs Orbán tweeted, “A Trump-Vance administration sounds just right,” along with a strong-arm emoji.
In an interview with the pro-government daily Magyar Nemzet, Balázs Orbán stated that Trump was “committed to peace” and “will soon create peace himself” if elected president of the United States again. If Europe wants peace, a major role in resolving the war, and an end to the killing, it must now devise and implement a change of course, he said.
In a statement that is certain to raise anxiety in EU capitals, he added, “We are convinced that—in political terms—we should use the entire period of Hungary’s EU presidency to establish the right conditions for peace negotiations.”
Michel, the president of the European Council, who has yet to respond to Orbán’s letter, has previously attacked Hungary’s efforts to negotiate with Russia but has not named names.
He stated earlier this month that the EU’s rotating presidency had no mandate to engage with Russia on its behalf. The European Council is clear: Russia is the aggressor, and Ukraine is the victim. There can be no conversation about Ukraine without Ukraine.
