Hungary’s Orbán faces backlash over his rogue ‘peace mission’ meetings with Western adversaries

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has made a Trumpian vow to “Make Europe Great Again” during his country’s six-month presidency of the European Union. As a first step last week, he astonished his allies by making a surprise trip to Ukraine — his first since Moscow invaded the country — followed by similarly unannounced visits to Russia and China for talks with two of the EU’s primary adversaries.

The EU’s longest-serving leader — who has endorsed former President Donald Trump and is known as having the warmest relations with Vladimir Putin in the bloc — wrapped up a NATO summit in Washington on Thursday before traveling to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound — his latest stop on what he calls a “peace mission” aimed at brokering an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Orbán shared a photo of himself and Trump on social media with the caption: “We discussed ways to make peace. The good news of the day: he’s going to solve it!”

On his own social media site, Trump posted: “Thank you Viktor. There must be PEACE, and quickly.”

But Orbán’s talks with Putin last week in Moscow, the first such visit by any EU leader since 2022, and his meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing, have angered the bloc’s leaders and prompted attempts to contain Hungary during the next six months of its EU presidency.

“As the president country, one must act as an honest broker and not give the impression that you are speaking for other countries,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told reporters at the NATO summit on Thursday. “(Orban) in reality is abusing the EU presidency and hijacking it for his own purposes.”

Péter Krekó, an analyst with the Budapest-based think tank Political Capital, said that Hungary’s rotating presidency has thus far been an exercise in “troll diplomacy,” and that Obán’s self-declared “peace mission” will only isolate him further from his Western partners who increasingly regard him as working against EU and NATO interests and undermining their efforts to assist Ukraine.

“He’s marginalizing himself more and more in EU politics, and it’s a foreign policy of self-destruction,” Krekó said.

He continued: “Orbán could have used the opportunity of the rotating presidency to get a bit closer to the European mainstream and organize high-level meetings in Budapest that could bring him some recognition in a period where he desperately needs it. Instead, he just got further from the mainstream.”

Orbán has long confounded his Western partners by pursuing warm ties with Putin, a relationship that was rendered more alarming when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He has also vigorously lobbied for Chinese investments and a more China-friendly economic policy while most EU countries seek to limit Beijing’s influence.

His recent meetings with Putin, Xi and Trump, which he did not announce in advance to any of his EU partners, drew significant backlash from European capitals and led some governments to consider boycotting or limiting participation in a series of upcoming informal meetings in Budapest related to the rotating presidency.

One EU diplomat, who requested anonymity to discuss the highly sensitive political issue, said this week that Orbán’s actions so early in Hungary’s presidency mean that “tensions are high” and “expected to be even higher” as those meetings approach.

“There is growing concern in the capitals about the self-attributed role of Mr. Orbán in the so-called ‘peace mission,’ where it should be clear he is only representing his own country,” the diplomat said. “Instead, he has intentionally left a lot of ambiguity.”

On Wednesday, János Bóka, Hungary’s EU affairs minister, downplayed reports that some countries would boycott meetings in Budapest in protest of Orbán’s visit with Putin, saying he was unaware of “any official initiative” to undermine Hungary’s role in the presidency.

But on Thursday, Kristersson, the prime minister of the newest NATO member Sweden, said that ministers from his country along with Finland and the Baltic countries “will not participate in the informal meetings during the summer.”

The backlash reflects a growing unwillingness in the EU and NATO to tolerate Orbán’s conduct. He has routinely acted as a spoiler in EU efforts to assist Kyiv and impose sanctions on Moscow for its war in Ukraine, and has long broken with his allies to argue for an immediate cessation of hostilities without outlining what that might mean for Ukraine’s territorial integrity or future security.

The EU has held up over $20 billion in funds to Budapest over allegations that Hungary has violated the bloc’s standards on democracy, the rule of law and corruption.

Krekó, the analyst, said that Orbán’s recent secret meetings with the West’s adversaries shows he “has lost his ambition to seem like a loyal ally, and he’s more and more openly a destructive force within the EU and NATO.”

His meeting with Trump, a NATO critic, is another sign of Orbán’s “troll diplomacy,” Krekó added.

On Thursday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan signaled concern that the Trump-Orbán meeting runs counter to Ukraine’s interests, saying, “The U.S. position — the Biden administration position — is nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”

“Whatever adventurism that is being undertaken without Ukraine’s consent or support,” Sullivan told reporters, “is not something that’s consistent with our policy.”

Orbán has hinted that his disruptive foreign policy — something he has characterized as a “sliver under the fingernail, a spoke in the wheels” — stems from Hungary’s modest political, economic and military weight on the international stage.

“If a country with no relative advantages wants to pursue an independent foreign policy, that country must take a radical position,” he said in a speech in December.

But Orbán’s recent provocative meetings are “a big show that he’s an autonomous foreign policy actor,” Krekó said, adding that not even Orbán ”believes that Hungary will change the course of big geopolitical affairs in the world.”

“It’s more about this selfish game to elevate his own weight and political position in the eyes of the Hungarian public and in the eyes of the global public,” Krekó said.

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Cook reported from Brussels. AP writer Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.