Orbán: Ukraine is a non-existent country

The United States is “our friend and ally”, but Hungary will not “allow it to force us into the war”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told public radio in an interview on Friday.

Nuclear war on the horizon

Orbán warned of the dangers of an escalation of the war in Ukraine, adding that “if there is a world war, it will be nuclear”. Commenting on punitive measures announced by the US embassy, he said they were not sanctions against Hungary. The list announced by Washington includes 34 private individuals, including a single Hungarian and others from countries including Cyprus, Austria and Liechtenstein, he said, adding that the action focused “basically on finance professionals”. Orbán said Hungary never agreed with the usefulness of sanctions but did not question anybody’s right to introduce them. “They have been acknowledged and will be respected,” he added.

The Budapest-based International Investment Bank (IIB) could have played an important role in developing central European economies, he said, but ever since the outbreak of the war it was clear the bank’s potential had been circumscribed and the recent sanctions “destroyed it”. Under these circumstances, he added, Hungary’s participation in the bank’s future activities had become senseless, and it therefore withdrew its delegates from the bank and quit the IIB, MTI wrote. Orbán said called the US “a friend and an important ally”, primarily in defence with the countries “members of a joint military defence alliance”. There are similarities of thinking between the two countries, with “basically identical beliefs”, and “we also believe that in order for people to live in peace and wealth, freedom and a market economy are needed”, he said. Christianity is another shared area, while economic relations present “the image of a success story”, he added.

The USA is our friend

“Everything is given so that we can have good and friendly relations,” Orbán said. At the same time, he said the US was not unified and showed an image “of a more divided country with large party political differences”. “When it is a Democrat president in the White House, then relations are more difficult and when there is a Republican, then they are easier,” Orbán said, adding that the Republican point of view was closer to the Hungarian government’s views on basic issues. “It is not our job to select between the players of American political life,” he said, adding that Hungary cooperated with any government that the American people elected.

“US ambassadors are typically political appointees and therefore we must accept that the ambassador stands close to the Democrats,” he added. At the same time, he said it was “unusual that the US embassy uses street billboards to represent the American opinion.” Orbán also said that the billboards with the slogan “Russians go home” seemed to suggest “that they are one step behind” because “we have already sent them home”. “We have already settled this issue”, and Hungarians need not be reminded of their own history, he added. The US is not abandoning “its plan” to force everyone into a war alliance, OrbOrbán n said, adding that Hungary would not “allow them to force us into the war”.

The USA is a safer place than the Carpathian Basin

Orbán said the US appeared “a safer place” on the map, “but you can’t say this about the Carpathian Basin”, and global political risks were different in Berehove (Beregszász) and Budapest compared with America. “Justifiably, we expect the United States to take Hungary’s special situation into consideration,” he said. “We’re on the side of peace, and that is where we want to remain,” he said. The prime minister said that if there were a world war, it would be nuclear. Orbán said the situation in Ukraine was deteriorating every week, while the danger of the war escalating was growing.