Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, on the second stop of his peace mission, visited Moscow on Friday, where he held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the settlement of the Ukraine conflict and bilateral relations between their countries.
In his speech before the meeting, the Hungarian Prime Minister reminded the press that this was the fourteenth bilateral meeting with the Russian President since 2009. He added, however, that this occasion was more special than the previous ones. He recalled that he had last visited Moscow in February 2022, before the war.
Orbán also highlighted that Hungary is holding the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union from 1 July.
The Hungarian PM thanked the Russian president for welcoming him ‘in such difficult circumstances’. He stressed: ‘We are slowly running out of countries that can talk to both sides in the war; Hungary is gradually becoming the only country in Europe that can talk to everyone.’ Orbán expressed his desire to
use this opportunity to discuss important issues with the Russian president
and to gain his perspective on matters that are significant for Europe.
‘I hope we will have the opportunity to exchange views on bilateral relations in this difficult situation and, of course, to discuss the prospects for resolving the biggest crisis in Europe, namely in Ukraine,’ Putin said of the meeting in a live broadcast on Rossiya 1 television. ‘I am, of course, ready to discuss the details with you on this issue and I look forward to hearing your and your European partners’ points of view,’ he added.
Putin also mentioned that regarding Russian-Hungarian bilateral relations, there has unfortunately been a significant drop of 35 per cent in trade in goods.
Before his visit to Moscow, Prime Minister Orbán also visited Kyiv on Tuesday, where he held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. At a subsequent press conference, Orbán stated that he had asked Zelenskyy to consider a time-bound ceasefire to expedite peace talks. Although the Ukrainian president refused the proposel, the talks yielded important results for Hungarian-Ukrainian bilateral relations.
As reported by Hungarian Conservative, Orbán has come under fire from Brussels over his visit to Moscow. First, Charles Michel, the outgoing President of the European Council, and then Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, distanced themselves from the Hungarian PM’s visit to Russia, making it clear that Orbán was not representing the EU’s position in the talks.
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