BUDAPEST: Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Friday celebrated his country’s status as the host of upcoming talks between US President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, a meeting where the two leaders are expected to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine.
Trump on Thursday announced his second meeting this year with Putin a day before he was to sit down with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. A date for the meeting has not been set, but Trump said it would take place in Hungary’s capital, Budapest, and suggested it could happen in about two weeks.
Hungary opposes the West’s support of Ukraine
Speaking to state radio on Friday, Orbán, a close Trump ally and considered Putin’s closest partner in the European Union, suggested that his long-standing opposition to the West supplying Ukraine with military and financial aid for its defense against Russia’s invasion had played a role in making Budapest the site of the talks.
“Budapest is essentially the only place in Europe today where such a meeting could be held, primarily because Hungary is almost the only pro-peace country,” Orbán said. “For three years, we have been the only country that has consistently, openly, loudly and actively advocated for peace.”
Orbán, who has often taken an adversarial stance against Ukraine and Zelensky, has consistently portrayed his position as pro-peace, while casting his European partners that favor assisting Kyiv in its defense as warmongers. Yet Orbán’s critics view Hungary’s position as favoring the aggressor in the war and splintering European unity in the face of Russian threats.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Hungary, a NATO member, has refused to supply Ukraine with weapons or allow their transfer across its borders. Orbán has threatened to veto certain EU sanctions against Moscow and held up the bloc’s adoption of major funding packages to Kyiv.
Meanwhile, Hungary has actively resisted weaning off of Russian fossil fuels that help fund Moscow’s war, and, in contrast to almost all of the EU’s other 26 countries, has even increased its supplies since the 2022 invasion.
Organizing a meeting with Putin is complicated
The meeting in Budapest comes after Trump failed to secure an agreement to end the war in Ukraine during an August meeting with Putin in Alaska. Falling short of his campaign pledge to quickly stop the bloodshed, Trump rolled out the red carpet for the man who started it.
A trip to Budapest for Putin would require him flying through the airspace of several NATO member countries, a potential complicating factor in organizing the meeting. Hungary is also a signatory to the International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, Netherlands, which in 2023 issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes. As a signatory, Orbán’s government would be required to arrest Putin if he set foot on Hungarian soil.
However, Orbán said in April that his country would begin the process of withdrawing from the court after he gave red carpet treatment in Budapest to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also faced an ICC warrant on suspicion of crimes against humanity.
Budapest holds symbolic significance
Budapest hosting the Trump-Putin meeting also holds symbolic significance: It was in the Hungarian capital in 1994 that the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia granted Ukraine assurances of sovereignty and territorial integrity in exchange for Kyiv giving up its nuclear weapons.
Yet for many Ukrainians, the Budapest Memorandum has become a symbol of promises that carried no weight after Moscow shredded the agreement first with the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and then with the full-scale invasion in 2022.
On Friday, Orbán said he’d spoken to Trump on Thursday evening and would speak directly with Putin on Friday morning. Set to face the most challenging election of his last 15 years in power in April, Orbán said that while the upcoming negotiations in Budapest were “not about Hungary,” the capital’s hosting of the meeting could be viewed as a personal political success.
“God knows when was the last time there was such an important diplomatic event in Hungary, where we are not simply hosts, but it is also considered a political achievement,” he said.
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Orbán celebrates Hungary as ‘the only place in Europe’ where a Trump-Putin meeting can be held
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Orbán celebrates Hungary as ‘the only place in Europe’ where a Trump-Putin meeting can be held
- The meeting in Budapest comes after Trump failed to secure an agreement to end the war in Ukraine during an August meeting with Putin in Alaska
- Orbán, who has often taken an adversarial stance against Ukraine and Zelensky, has consistently portrayed his position as pro-peace, while casting his European partners that favor assisting Kyiv in its defense as warmongers
Ukraine’s Zelensky meets Pope Leo, prepares revised plan on Russia war
- UKrainian leader said that Washington’s 28-point plan had been reduced to 20 points after US-Ukraine talks at the weekend
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Pope Leo XIV in Italy on Tuesday as he prepared to send the United States revised proposals to end Russia’s invasion.
Zelensky on Monday held talks with European leaders in London and Brussels as US President Donald Trump keeps up pressure on Kyiv for a settlement.
Trump has accused Zelensky of not even reading his administration’s initial proposals, which were judged by Ukraine’s allies to be overly favorable to Russia.
Zelensky said that Washington’s 28-point plan had been reduced to 20 points after US-Ukraine talks at the weekend.
Ukrainian and European officials “are going to work on these 20 points,” Zelensky told an online press conference on Monday.
“We do not like everything that our partners came back with. Although this issue is not so much with the Americans as with the Russians.
“But we will definitely work on it, and as I said, tomorrow evening (Tuesday) we will do everything to send our view on this to the US.”
Washington’s plan involved Ukraine surrendering land that Russia has not captured in return for security promises that fall short of Kyiv’s aspirations to join NATO.
Zelensky pointed to the land issue and international security guarantees as two of the main sticking points.
“Do we envision ceding territories? We have no legal right to do so, under Ukrainian law, our constitution and international law. And we don’t have any moral right either,” Zelensky said.
“The key is to know what our partners will be ready to do in the event of new aggression by Russia. At the moment, we have not received any answer to this question,” Zelensky said.
‘Robust security guarantees’
Zelensky met with Pope Leo at his country residence in Castel Gandolfo near Rome, and is to meet Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni later Tuesday.
Meloni has been a staunch supporter of Kyiv since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, although one of her coalition allies, Matteo Salvini’s League party, is more skeptical.
Rome has sent weapons to Ukraine but only for use inside the country. Meloni has also ruled out sending troops in a possible monitoring force proposed by Britain and France.
The Italian government last week postponed a decision on renewing military aid to Ukraine, with the current authorization due to end on December 31. Salvini has reportedly questioned if it was necessary given the new talks.
However, Meloni at the time insisted that “as long as there’s a war, we’ll do what we can, as we’ve always done to help Ukraine defend itself.”
On Monday, Zelensky met in London with the leaders of Britain, France and Germany before heading to Brussels for talks with the heads of the EU and of NATO.
“Ukraine’s sovereignty must be respected. Ukraine’s security must be guaranteed, in the long term, as a first line of defense for our Union,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after Monday’s meeting.
French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X after the London meeting that “we are preparing robust security guarantees and measures for Ukraine’s reconstruction.”
Macron said the “main issue” was finding “convergence” between the European-Ukrainian position and that of the United States.
Trump has blown hot and cold on Ukraine since returning to office in January, initially chastising Zelensky for not being grateful for US support.
But he was also frustrated that efforts to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war had failed to produce results and he recently slapped sanctions on Russian oil firms.
Zelensky on Monday held talks with European leaders in London and Brussels as US President Donald Trump keeps up pressure on Kyiv for a settlement.
Trump has accused Zelensky of not even reading his administration’s initial proposals, which were judged by Ukraine’s allies to be overly favorable to Russia.
Zelensky said that Washington’s 28-point plan had been reduced to 20 points after US-Ukraine talks at the weekend.
Ukrainian and European officials “are going to work on these 20 points,” Zelensky told an online press conference on Monday.
“We do not like everything that our partners came back with. Although this issue is not so much with the Americans as with the Russians.
“But we will definitely work on it, and as I said, tomorrow evening (Tuesday) we will do everything to send our view on this to the US.”
Washington’s plan involved Ukraine surrendering land that Russia has not captured in return for security promises that fall short of Kyiv’s aspirations to join NATO.
Zelensky pointed to the land issue and international security guarantees as two of the main sticking points.
“Do we envision ceding territories? We have no legal right to do so, under Ukrainian law, our constitution and international law. And we don’t have any moral right either,” Zelensky said.
“The key is to know what our partners will be ready to do in the event of new aggression by Russia. At the moment, we have not received any answer to this question,” Zelensky said.
‘Robust security guarantees’
Zelensky met with Pope Leo at his country residence in Castel Gandolfo near Rome, and is to meet Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni later Tuesday.
Meloni has been a staunch supporter of Kyiv since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, although one of her coalition allies, Matteo Salvini’s League party, is more skeptical.
Rome has sent weapons to Ukraine but only for use inside the country. Meloni has also ruled out sending troops in a possible monitoring force proposed by Britain and France.
The Italian government last week postponed a decision on renewing military aid to Ukraine, with the current authorization due to end on December 31. Salvini has reportedly questioned if it was necessary given the new talks.
However, Meloni at the time insisted that “as long as there’s a war, we’ll do what we can, as we’ve always done to help Ukraine defend itself.”
On Monday, Zelensky met in London with the leaders of Britain, France and Germany before heading to Brussels for talks with the heads of the EU and of NATO.
“Ukraine’s sovereignty must be respected. Ukraine’s security must be guaranteed, in the long term, as a first line of defense for our Union,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after Monday’s meeting.
French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X after the London meeting that “we are preparing robust security guarantees and measures for Ukraine’s reconstruction.”
Macron said the “main issue” was finding “convergence” between the European-Ukrainian position and that of the United States.
Trump has blown hot and cold on Ukraine since returning to office in January, initially chastising Zelensky for not being grateful for US support.
But he was also frustrated that efforts to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war had failed to produce results and he recently slapped sanctions on Russian oil firms.
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