Trump has ‘detailed plans’ to end Ukraine war, Orban claims
Donald Trump has “detailed and well-founded plans” for ending the war in Ukraine, Viktor Orban, the Hungarian president, has claimed in a letter to EU leaders.
Mr Orban, who is at the centre of a major row in the EU over his recent meeting with Vladimir Putin, said Trump would “immediately” begin work as an international mediator, in the letter seen by German tabloid Bild.
“I can say with certainty that immediately after his election victory, he will not wait until his inauguration, but will immediately be ready to act as a peace mediator. He has detailed and well-founded plans for this,” Mr Orban wrote.
In the same letter he urged Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, to restore and improve relations with the Russian Federation, which virtually collapsed after the invasion of Ukraine.
He also called for a “peace conference” in China and said the war in Ukraine would “radically intensify” in the near future, which he said underlined the need for peace talks.
The letter’s contents are controversial as Mr Orban is increasingly considered by EU leaders as Putin’s closest ally in the bloc and some suspect he might be attempting to lobby them on Moscow’s behalf.
Summit boycott
Mr Orban has opposed EU sanctions on Russia which were imposed after the invasion and has said the war is economically hurting EU citizens.
The current holder of the EU’s Council presidency, which rotates between member states, recently visited Putin and Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, in what other EU leaders said was a rogue overseas trip that did not represent them.
According to US news site Politico, EU foreign affairs ministers are set to boycott a summit hosted by Mr Orban in Budapest next month, and will instead host their own at the same time.
All EU leaders, except Ursula von der Leyen, the EU Commission president, are expected to attend a separate European Political Community summit – which includes non-member Britain – in Blenheim Palace, this Thursday. It will be the first such summit to be hosted by Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister.
The previous Conservative government maintained a good relationship with Hungary in the years after Brexit.
In May this year, on a trip to London, Peter Szijjarto, Hungary’s foreign minister, said the EU was missing a “big bunch” of British common sense after Brexit.
During the Brexit negotiations, Mr Orban repeatedly called for a good deal for Britain but failed to make any significant interventions on the UK’s behalf over years of EU summits.
While Budapest echoes a lot of British pre-Brexit frustrations with Brussels overreach, it has no plans to follow the UK outside of the bloc. Instead, it wants the closest possible trade relationship with Britain.
The new Labour government will be less ideologically aligned with the Right-wing nationalist and anti-migrant party Fidesz, which has ruled Hungary for the last 14 years and was supportive of the ditched Rwanda plan.
However, the Hungarian government sees British investment as important for growth so will be keen to preserve good relations.
Mr Orban’s insistence that Trump will swiftly solve the war in Ukraine should he win the election in November could also give British lawmakers supportive of Kyiv reasons for concern.