Hungary’s defence minister: Ukraine’s NATO accession not realistic
Hungary’s defence minister welcomed “the voice of the United States” at Wednesday’s meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, in a post on Facebook.
“We agree that the bloodshed has to end as soon as possible and that instead of further steps leading to escalation, the war has to be brought to an end, Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said from Brussels, adding that Hungary did not currently consider Ukraine’s NATO accession realistic.
“It is time we talked about the real path to peace,” the minister said. Szalay-Bobrovniczky said Hungary will continue to push for such a direction at a meeting of NATO defence ministers on Thursday.
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elomagyarorszag.hu
Maybe Mr. Szalay-Bobrovniczky missed parts of the meeting? Couple of soundbites he missed:
Peace in Ukraine “must be backed by capable European and non-European troops” – which I believe means putting Hungarian armed forces on the line (and since we are neighbours – we should maybe shoulder a larger burden that, say, Spain?).
And here for the fun bit: “If these troops are deployed as peacekeepers to Ukraine at any point, they should be deployed as part of a non-NATO mission, and they should not be covered under Article 5” (of the NATO treaty). So the US won´t be helping when the shells do come raining down. No – no exception for BFF Hungary, as I read it.
Then, the whole “Hungary meets the 2 percent” chant. No, no, no! As Mr. Hegseth reiterated – he agrees with President Donald J. Trump’s assessment that NATO nations, including Hungary, should be increasing their defense spending levels from 2 percent of their gross domestic product to 5 percent. Good thing we still get over 3 percent of GDP gifted to us by the European Union, annually.
https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4064571/hegseth-calls-on-nato-allies-to-lead-europes-security-rules-out-support-for-ukr/
Last but mot least – the US Master Negotiators already threw a bargaining chip out of the window by stating that “Kyiv joining NATO is unrealistic”.
Again – it appears as if Mr. Szalay-Bobrovniczky missed part of the meeting. I have no other explanation when I read the article.