The Hungarian PM is on a “peace mission” to end the Ukraine conflict, a task the former US leader says he’ll fulfill “within 24 hours”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will hold talks with former US President Donald Trump on Thursday, Bloomberg reports, citing sources familiar with Orban’s schedule.
The meeting comes on the heels of the prime minister’s “peace mission” to Ukraine, and less than a week after he held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
According to the report, Orban will meet Trump at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort immediately after the conclusion of the NATO summit in Washington. Trump’s campaign representatives didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The Hungarian government has also yet to comment on the report.
Trump established close ties with Orban during the presidency, and the Hungarian premier has been an enthusiastic supporter of Trump during his current run for office. A vocal critic of the EU’s stance on the Ukraine conflict and a proponent of a diplomatic solution, Orban said last month that there would be a greater chance of reaching a peace deal if Trump wins the presidential election in November and “ends this war within 24 hours,” as the presumptive Republican candidate has repeatedly promised.
It is unclear whether the pair will talk about the Ukraine conflict at the meeting. Bloomberg sources described it as an informal get-together, with one claiming that Trump had not asked Orban to lay the groundwork for Russia-Ukraine peace talks. However, it is expected that the issue will be discussed given the premier’s extensive travel schedule as part of his ‘peace mission’.
Earlier this week, Orban said he is seeking a resolution of the Ukraine crisis by holding talks with the “five main actors” in the conflict – including Ukraine, Russia, China, the EU and the US. Apart from meeting Putin, in recent days, he has also held talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
While many EU and NATO officials have disavowed Orban’s diplomatic tour, claiming it was “unhelpful” for the peace process and for Ukraine, the Hungarian prime minister dismissed the criticism and said he was “helping Europe” with his efforts to bring the conflict parties to the negotiating table. He has acknowledged, however, that he does not possess enough political power to have a significant impact on the conflict, which should be solved by others, including the new US leadership.
Orban’s efforts have so far failed to result in any significant change to the peace process. Following his meetings with Zelensky and Putin, the Hungarian premier concluded that Moscow’s and Kiev’s positions on a solution to the conflict remain very “far apart.” However, after meeting Xi earlier this week, he noted that both Moscow and Beijing foresee peace talks before the end of 2024.
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