Peace project on the wrong track – – 2024-07-12 15:57:41

Orbán on NATO:

Written by Rainer Ackermann

The group photo at the official start of the NATO anniversary summit was intended to radiate harmony, but Hungary continues to emphasize its special path towards Ukraine.

“NATO should not win wars, but peace,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (M.) regarding photos in social media showing him with US President Joe Biden (l.) and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg show.

Dangerous and irresponsible

The Prime Minister recalled NATO’s original objective as a peace project. He is concerned that the defense alliance is becoming increasingly active in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. “This is dangerous and irresponsible because no one knows the outcome,” said Orbán, who wants to urge NATO partners to return to the original spirit of the alliance. In order to win peace, the main thing is to expand the defense capabilities of the member states. In this sense, Hungary will meet all its obligations as an alliance partner, but will continue not to participate in any way in NATO’s “Ukraine mission.”

“NATO should not win wars, but peace.”

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán

Efforts with fatal consequences

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky also described NATO in Washington as the strongest defense alliance in the world, which is admittedly facing more and more severe challenges today than ever before in its 75-year history. The war in Ukraine and the Middle East conflict in particular are causing global tensions that are being felt by all member states and NATO as a whole. The current summit is therefore intended to strengthen transatlantic unity. These efforts, however, have the potential to prolong the conflict in Hungary’s neighboring country. Hungary is not participating in this escalation and is not providing money or soldiers, the minister said.

Second in NATO

For years, Hungary has met the requirement to spend at least 2% of GDP on defense. In terms of the proportion of military spending that is used to modernize the armed forces, Hungary is even second in NATO. Hungary is strengthening NATO missions in Kosovo and Iraq, it is involved in protecting the Baltic airspace and is intensively building up the structures of a complex defense industry.