Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban has stated that Ukraine would never become a member of the EU or NATO.
Speaking in Baile Tusnad, a majority-ethnic Hungarian town in central Romania, Orban averred, “We Europeans do not have the money for it.”
“Ukraine will revert to the position of a buffer state,” he said, adding that international security guarantees “will be enshrined in an agreement between the US and Russia.”
“The EU needs to give up its identity as a political project and become an economic and defense project,” Orban said.
Throughout Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine, Orban has broken with other EU leaders by refusing to provide Kyiv with weapons to defend against Russian forces and has routinely delayed, watered down, or blocked efforts to send financial aid to Kyiv and impose sanctions on Moscow.
Also, Orban said that the European Union was sliding toward oblivion and warned of a new, Asia-oriented “world order.”
“Europe has given up defending its own interests,” Orbán said.
“All Europe is doing today is following the U.S.’s pro-Democrat foreign policy unconditionally … even at the cost of self-destruction.”
Viktor Orban
“A change is coming that has not been seen for 500 years. What we are facing is in fact a world order change,” he claimed.
Citing China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia, Orban asserted, “In the next long decades, maybe centuries, Asia will be the dominant centre of the world.”
He mentioned that Western policies had pushed Russia into aligning with these Asian nations.
He said that in contrast to the “weakness” of the West, Russia’s position in world affairs was rational and predictable, saying the country had shown economic flexibility in adapting to Western sanctions.
He called Russia’s leadership “hyper rational.”
Orban, whose own government has passed several anti-LGBT measures, said Russia had gained clout in many parts of the world by severely restricting LGBTQ+ rights.
“The strongest international appeal of Russian soft power is its opposition to LGBTQ,” he said.
The far-right leader’s remarks come amid growing criticism from his European partners after he embarked on rogue “peace mission” trips to Moscow and Beijing earlier this month aimed at brokering an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Hungary currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency Orbán is widely considered to have the warmest relations with the Kremlin among all EU leaders.
Additionally, Orban doubled down on his long-held anti-immigration stance, saying that it is not an answer to his country’s aging population.
“There can be no question of a shrinking population supplemented by migration. The Western experience is that if there are more guests than owners, then home is no longer home. This is a risk that should not be taken.”
Viktor Orban
Orban Voices Support For Trump’s Presidential Bid
Moreover, the Hungarian Prime Minister threw his support for Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential bid.
Orban said that Trump’s bid for re-election aims “to pull the American people back from a post-nationalist liberal state to a nation-state.”
He claimed that Trump is being penalized unfairly to prevent his electoral bid.
“That is why they want to put him in prison. That’s why they want to take away his assets. And if that doesn’t work, that’s why they want to kill him.”
Viktor Orban
Hungary currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency and has openly endorsed Trump’s candidacy in this year’s U.S. presidential election.
Orbán visited Trump twice this year at the former President’s beachside compound in Mar-a-Lago.
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