PM Viktor Orbán on Trump’s “criminal record”
Robert Menendez, a Democratic member of the US Senate’s foreign policy committee, assembled a report about the foreign policy of the Trump administration. The document describes the President’s work as chaotic and writes a lot about his relationship with Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán.
According to hvg, if Joe Biden wins, Menendez will be the chairman of the foreign policy cabinet of the Senate, so he will have a significant influence on the foreign policy of the USA. Importantly, he speaks about Trump’s good relationship with PM Viktor Orbán as a severe mistake. He added that Mr Orbán reduced the Hungarian democracy and exposed not only his country to the Russian influence but also NATO and the European Union.
- Former US ambassador: “If Trump wins, he will come to Hungary”
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Mr Menendez mentioned Russian President Vladimir Putin, King Salman of Saudi Arabia, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and North-Korean leader Kim Jong-un, together with PM Orbán, as authoritarian leaders who President Trump should not have a good relationship with.
He says that Hungary has turned back from the way of democracy since 2010. That is why
the Obama-administration distanced itself from the Hungarian government
and tried to protect the freedom of the press and help the independent media and civil organisations. In contrast, the Trump-administration misunderstood the problems with Hungary and accepted the Orbán-regime, saying that it was the only way to keep Hungary away from Russian and Chinese influence. However, they failed in that mission since Russian capital is in Hungary, the Hungarian intelligence services cooperate with Moscow, the ties in energetics are strong, and the Russia-led International Investment Bank is in Budapest. In the report,
he found that trend dangerous for NATO and the European Union as well.
Mr Menendez added that despite the American request, Hungary extradited two Russian arms dealers to Moscow where they escaped punishment. They wrote about China as well, saying that both the joint railway project (Budapest-Belgrade) and the headquarter of Huawei near Budapest are dangerous.
Mr Menendez added the report of the Freedom House about the reduction of Hungarian democracy, the state of the Hungarian media, science and higher education, civil organisations, migration, and economy where the government’s pressure is significant.
Menendez said that before Trump met Mr Orbán, he warned the President about the above-mentioned problems, but he replied that “Orbán is a good guy”, and Hungary will buy a lot of American weapons. That is true. The Hungarian military will buy an anti-aircraft missile system from the USA for HUF 74 billion (USD 240 million). Many say that the Hungarian government would like to buy the goodwill of the USA with that deal, but such maneuvres will not be enough if Biden wins.
The presidential nominee already criticised the Orbán-regime, saying that what happens in Hungary is among the world’s worrying developments. Thus, it is not surprising that
PM Orbán announced already in the summer that he supports Trump.
Source: hvg.hu