PM Orbán at NATO summit: Russia not strong enough, not a real threat to us
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“I think Russia is not strong enough to represent a real threat to us. We are far stronger,” Hungary’s PM Orbán said in The Hague today ahead of attending the second day of the NATO summit.
Not security but economic threats, says Orbán
According to the Anadolu News Agency, PM Orbán called for a revision of the EU’s budget regulation framework, warning that no member state would be able to meet NATO’s 5% of GDP defense spending target under the current rules. Speaking ahead of NATO leaders meeting in The Hague, Orbán said the 5% target is reachable though it would not be easy.
“It’s not easy, but the whole calculation of budget regulation of European Union must be changed,” he told reporters. “If we keep the regulation as it is, nobody in the European Union is able to fulfill 5%. So we have to recalculate everything in a different method.” Orbán said the biggest threat Europe faces today is not military, but economic. “The real threat is not security wise, it’s economic and losing our competitiveness on the global trade.”
Russia is not strong enough
“I think Russia is not strong enough to represent a real threat to us. We are far stronger,” he added. On Ukraine, he said: “NATO has no business in Ukraine. Ukraine is not member of NATO, neither Russia. My job is to keep it as it is.”
US president ‘man of common sense’
According to the Hungarian News Agency (MTI), international order is based on common sense, and the US president is “a man of common sense, as it was shown in the way he handled the conflict between Israel and Iran,” Orbán said. Ahead of attending the second day of the NATO summit, Orbán added that as a result of Donald Trump’s work, “new wars will be shorter and old wars will run out of fuel”.