PM Orbán arrived in Washington while NATO allies call him Putin’s useful idiot

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Putin and Orbán in Moscow. Photo: FB/Orbán

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has arrived in Washington, DC., where he will take part in a three-day NATO summit, the PM’s press chief said on Tuesday.

The prime minister’s plane, like those of the other NATO leaders, landed at Andrews Air Force Base, Bertalan Havasi told MTI. Orbán is also scheduled to hold bilateral talks with the leaders of NATO member states.

After Orbán’s “peace mission” in Moscow and Russia’s missile attack against Ukrainian hospitals treating children suffering from cancer, Jan Lipavský, Czechia’s foreign minister, referred to Orbán as a useful idiot of President Putin in a tweet shared on X. Lipavský also wrote about the Washington NATO summit, which, he believes, will “push for a long-term strategy to contain Russia.”

Helmut Brandstätter, an Austrian liberal MEP, called Orbán a clown in a tweet. “Look at the pictures of the children’s hospital in Kyiv and shut up”, he wrote.

Orbán sets historic record

Hungary took the EU presidency last week, and Orbán has been busy meeting some of the world’s top leaders in recent days. On 2 July, he visited President Zelensky in Kyiv, then went to Moscow, Beijing and now arrived in Washington. That is a historic record in such a short time.

Experts believe that even though some world leaders do not agree with Orbán’s position on many issues, they find his opinion interesting enough to meet him on last-minute visits.

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PM Viktor Orbán and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on 8 July 2024. Photo: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher

In Washington, Orbán is expected to talk with President Joe Biden and even former President Trump in the following days. Zoltán Kiszelly, the political director of Századvég, thinks Orbán will not find supporters for his peace mission, Blikk, a Hungarian tabloid, wrote.

Orbán cabinet: ceasefire, peace talks only solution to Ukraine war

A ceasefire and peace talks are the only solution to the Ukraine war, the foreign minister said on Tuesday. Péter Szijjártó said on Facebook that the situation was getting increasingly severe in the Ukraine-Russia war, with recent “heartbreaking” events involving children, “and this can be expected to deteriorate further”.

“There are more and more weapons and the war propaganda is getting stronger, with a severe looming danger of escalation,” he said. “We have been warning of this for weeks.”

“There’s only one solution; there’s only one way to stop the senseless destruction and massacre; there’s only one way to save people’s lives and prevent more severe developments: a ceasefire and peace talks”, Szijjártó said.

Kyiv, Moscow, Beijing, Washington: the government says they are on a peace mission:

He added that this was the reason why the Hungarian leadership was setting off “on a peace mission” and paying a visit to Washington, DC.

“We will represent this stance at the NATO summit: there is no solution on the battlefield,” he said. “It is impossible to comprehend why they cannot accept this.”

“Yet, the draft resolutions for the next three days demonstrate a total lack of understanding, with NATO set to launch a mission in support of Ukraine,” he said. “We will stay out of this; we won’t supply weapons, we won’t provide troops, and we will not take part in financing,” he added.

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