After the NATO summit in Washington, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán travelled to Florida to continue his peace mission at the Mar-a-Lago residence of former US President Donald Trump, the current Republican presidential candidate. In a brief statement, Prime Minister’s press chief Bertalan Havasi said that the parties discussed the options of peace in Ukraine.
Viktor Orbán shared a post on X about the talks, captioned ‘Peace mission 5.0.’ ‘It was an honour to visit President @realDonaldTrump at Mar-a-Lago today. We discussed ways to make #peace. The good news of the day: he’s going to solve it!’ he wrote.
Peace mission 5.0
— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) July 12, 2024
It was an honour to visit President @realDonaldTrump at Mar-a-Lago today. We discussed ways to make #peace. The good news of the day: he’s going to solve it! pic.twitter.com/AiTRsdexM5
The former US President responded on Truth Social, saying: ‘Thank you, Viktor. Let there be PEACE, and quickly. Too many people have died in a war that should never have started!’
Orbán launched his peace mission in Kyiv last week, asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Ukrainian capital to consider a time-bound ceasefire agreement to expedite peace talks. The prime minister then headed to Moscow, where he was received by President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. In the Russian capital, Orbán stressed that peace is the most important thing for Europe and that the Hungarian EU Presidency views the next six months as a mission of peace. He added that during his visits to Kyiv and Moscow, he had seen that positions were very far apart and that a lot of work was needed to build peace.
On 8 July, the prime minister travelled to China, where he met with President Xi Jinping to discuss the prospects for peace in Ukraine. During the talks, Orbán emphasized that Hungarians have always been on the side of peace, not war, and that it is particularly important for Hungary and the Hungarian people that China is advocating for peace globally.
After Beijing, Orbán travelled to Washington for the 75th anniversary summit of NATO, where he highlighted that NATO should aim to secure peace, not engage in wars. He reminded the attendees that NATO was founded 75 years ago to protect the security of its members. Today, however,
it appears to be deviating from its original purpose
and starting to behave like a war organization. One indication of this, he pointed out, is NATO’s increasingly active role in the war in Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the peace mission, various EU officials have heavily criticized Orbán for allegedly representing the EU position as rotating president in these meetings without permission. However, several Hungarian government officials—including Viktor Orbán himself—have repeatedly stated that
he is attending the peace mission as the Hungarian Prime Minister, not as the rotating president.
French President Emmanuel Macron recently spoke out on the issue. ‘Viktor Orbán has sovereignly decided on his programme, which he has the right to do, but he has not and cannot oblige the European Union to do anything,’ as La Repubblica quoted Macron. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni defended Orbán, telling the paper that it is normal for leaders of countries to negotiate with each other, and that she saw nothing wrong with Orbán’s meeting with Donald Trump. ‘It is obvious that if an initiative gives hope for peace and diplomacy, it must be organized,’ Meloni pointed out. She added that, nevertheless, she sees Russia as unwilling to engage in dialogue.
Read more on PM Orbán’s peace mission:
