UPDATE – Orbán in Moscow:
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán continued his peace mission in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell was quick to clarify that the Hungarian had no mandate from the EU.
In the morning, Orbán gave his usual Friday interview for Kossuth Radio in Budapest, in which he explained his mission to Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday. He also noted that Hungary knows very well where its place is in the international community. “The major peace negotiations are reserved for the major states. But where there is no dialogue, we make little progress.”
Orbán: “I am not negotiating, I am clarifying facts”
Regarding the role of the EU Council Presidency, which Hungary took over for six months on July 1, the Prime Minister made it clear that this does not give him any mandate to negotiate. “What I am doing here may look like negotiations because we are sitting down at the same table. But they are not negotiations, so I do not need a mandate for them. All I am doing is visiting those places where there is a risk of war or that are at war, with negative consequences for Europe and especially for Hungary, in order to clarify the facts.”
Neither mandate nor weight
Orbán asked Zelenskyj sensitive questions to find out his intentions and how far Ukraine can go to achieve peace. If you stick to your chairs in Brussels and don’t move, there will never be peace, because it won’t happen on its own.
“Peace requires active steps,” the Prime Minister explained, adding that Hungary might not take responsibility in this regard as it had neither a mandate nor the necessary weight in international politics.
“But just because we do not have this international weight, we can still be a good instrument for God and peace-loving people.” It is regarding bringing together viewpoints that are miles apart today. Only at the end of this difficult process will a ceasefire and peace talks be possible.
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