NATO

NATO Secretary General in Budapest – PM Orbán: We don’t have to participate in action outside NATO territory

orbán stoltenberg

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has confirmed that any military operation outside the organisation’s territory can only be performed on a voluntary basis, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at a joint press conference held after talks with Stoltenberg in Budapest on Wednesday, adding that “Hungary has received all the necessary guarantees” from NATO.

Orbán said he had made it clear during talks that Hungary would not block NATO decisions “which could differ from the rational position based on our assessment of the situation but which other members share and support.”

The prime minister said that in Hungary’s recent European parliamentary election voters “have given a mandate that Hungary should not participate in any military action outside NATO territory”.

Orbán wrote on Facebook: “We have reached an agreement with the NATO Secretary General. We do not have to participate in military action outside Hungary. We will not send men, weapons or money to war!”

Stoltenberg: NATO accepts Hungary’s non-participation in operations to support Ukraine

NATO accepts Hungary’s position under which the country does not wish to participate in military or financial efforts towards supporting Ukraine, while Hungary would not block such NATO efforts, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said after talks with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Budapest on Wednesday.

At a press conference held jointly with Orbán, Stoltenberg said he was expecting an agreement at NATO’s July summit in Washington, DC, under which the organisation could take a leading role in coordinating and promoting security support and training for Ukraine.

Stoltenberg said he hoped NATO would take a long-term financial commitment to provide military support to Ukraine, adding that it would ensure NATO’s predictability and reliability for Ukraine. He referred to Orbán stating that Hungary would not participate in those NATO efforts, adding that “I accept this position”.

Stoltenberg welcomed that he and Orbán had made an agreement ensuring ways for Hungary’s non-participation in NATO’s support for Ukraine. He confirmed that no Hungarian personnel would take part in those NATO activities and no Hungarian funds would be used for such purposes.

The NATO chief said Orbán had assured him that Hungary would continue to meet its NATO commitments in full. He said Hungary had always been a highly esteemed NATO ally in the past 25 years and highly appreciated the Hungarian prime minister stating that Hungary would remain “a loyal and committed” NATO ally.

Stoltenberg noted that Hungary was leading a multinational NATO unit and also hosted an important multidivision headquarters while it also supported stability in the Western Balkans and participated in KFOR’s peace-keeping operations in Kosovo. He added that since the start of Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine Hungary had continued to accommodate Ukrainian refugees and helped in the rehabilitation of injured soldiers. All those efforts have contributed to common security, the NATO chief said.

Hungary is a loyal member of NATO

Hungary is a “loyal and committed member” of NATO, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said after talks with Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general, in Budapest on Wednesday.

orbán stoltenberg
Viktor Orbán and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on 12 June 2024. Photo: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Fischer Zoltán

Hungary currently has 1,300 troops participating in NATO missions, Orbán told a press conference held jointly with Stoltenberg. He added that Hungary was “one of the not too many countries” that performed “all their commitments” to NATO, its defence spending exceeding 2 percent of GDP and “also meeting the 20 percent capability development goal”.

Hungary also participates in airspace policing missions, too, in Slovakia, Slovenia, and on several occasions in the Baltic states, the PM added. Hungary also serves as “a crucial embassy linking NATO with central Asia and Africa,” he added.

Hungary will continue to meet its commitments in full in the future, the prime minister said.

Orbán’s press conference with Jens Stoltenberg:

Orbán praised Stoltenberg as a NATO leader highly appreciated in Hungary, adding that under his leadership cooperation between Hungary and NATO had strengthened.

Orbán also noted his government’s position on the war in Ukraine being different from that of most NATO members and said he acknowledged “the significant weight and number” of different positions.

He said he had made it clear during the talks that Hungary would not block NATO decisions “which could differ from the rational decisions based on our assessment of the situation but which other member states share and support”.

Hungary has received the required guarantees from Stoltenberg that “any military operation outside the organisation’s territory can only be performed on a voluntary basis,” Orbán said. The prime minister said in Hungary’s recent European parliamentary election voters had given “a mandate that Hungary should not participate in any military action outside the territory of NATO”.

Asked about guarantees ensuring that Hungary could not be forced to get involved in the war in future, Orbán said there were “two such guarantees: one is the Hungarian government and the other is the NATO secretary general”.

“We have received all [guarantees] that were necessary to resolve open issues … we had difficult but constructive talks concluded with a fair agreement,” Orbán said

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Foreign minister Szijjártó: NATO members view Ukraine war differently from Hungary

szijjártó jens stoltenberg

The position of the majority of NATO member states concerning the war in Ukraine and the possibility of peace is entirely different from that of Hungary, the foreign minister said on Wednesday.

NATO is preparing to launch a mission concerning Ukraine which Hungary deems “dangerous and unnecessary”, but since NATO’s 31 other members have a different view “we cannot prevent that,” Péter Szijjártó said on Facebook.

He said the Hungarian government’s most important goal and task was to secure a guarantee that Hungarian troops should not be obliged to participate in the planned mission, that Hungarian taxpayers’ money should not be used for its financing and that there should be “no military event taking place in Hungary’s territory,” Szijjártó said.

Szijjártó and Jens Stoltenberg:


“The threat of the war’s escalation is now bigger than ever,” he said, adding that “continued efforts are expected to be made to maintain Hungary’s security and to ensure that the country is not involved in the war.”

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Hungary at risk: potential exclusion from key NATO group – UPDATE: Romanian president

bucharest nine 2023 nato

Could Hungary be in trouble within NATO? The Bucharest Nine plans to exclude Hungary from its members as it is not cooperative enough.

As Financial Times reports, diplomats from the Bucharest Nine (B9) group, comprising Eastern European NATO and EU member states, are contemplating the exclusion of Hungary from future meetings, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

Bucharest Nine (B9)

bucharest nine 2023 nato
The Bucharest Nine (B9) in 2023. Photo: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd

The B9, established in 2015, includes Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. These countries, once part of the Soviet Union or the Warsaw Pact, now coordinate security policies as NATO and EU members, particularly focusing on their eastern borders, Privátbankár writes.

Recently, Hungary has blocked the group’s joint statements supporting increased aid to Ukraine and NATO’s measures to enhance military assistance to Ukraine or expedite its membership process. Hungary’s stance on Ukraine and its accession talks has increasingly frustrated its allies.

The B9 leaders are meeting on 11 June in Riga, and officials anticipate Hungary will once again refuse to endorse a declaration agreed upon by the others.

Talks to exclude Hungary “very serious”

Talks about potentially excluding Hungary are described as “very serious,” with one source noting, “This is likely the last time we meet in this format.” Another source highlighted the “tough” debates in recent meetings, suggesting that future meetings will be challenging to organise unless Hungary becomes more cooperative.

The Financial Times also highlighted that last month, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated Hungary aims to “redefine” its NATO membership terms, opposing the alliance’s support for Ukraine in the ongoing war.

“Hungary has been invited to the B9 summit in Riga on June 11,” the Lithuanian presidential office confirmed, emphasizing that “for the unity of NATO and the EU, it is important for Hungary to remain within the group.”

Reuters: Sulyok did not attend

bucharest nine riga summit 11 june
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and Polish President Andrzej Duda (left-right) at the summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Bucharest Nine (B9), a group of NATO member states from Central and Eastern Europe, in Riga, 11 June 2024. Photo: MTI/EPA-PAP/Pawel Supernak

Meanwhile, the Reuters news agency reported that

President Tamás Sulyok would not attend Tuesday’s presidential-level meeting.

Instead, the country will be represented by Hungary’s ambassador to Lithuania, and therefore no joint statement is expected at the end of the event, Index writes.

NATO Secretary General visits Budapest

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who is attending the Riga summit, will visit Budapest soon on Wednesday to discuss “Hungary’s omission from the Alliance’s mission in Ukraine”, Viktor Orbán said in an interview with state television on Monday.

On Tuesday morning, it was announced on NATO’s website that Stoltenberg will indeed visit Hungary, and a spokesman for the organisation shared the information on X:

As reported, Jens Stoltenberg will hold a joint press conference with Viktor Orbán on Wednesday morning at 10.10.

UPDATE: Romanian president’s reaction (10.45 PM 11 June)

The Romanian head of state has denied that the Bucharest Nine (B9), which brings together the member states of NATO’s eastern wing, are considering excluding Hungary because the Hungarian government allegedly “regularly opposes” the decisions of its partners, Portfolio reports.

Klaus Iohannis, who attended the B9 Heads of State and Government meeting, was interviewed by Romanian journalists in Riga on the above-mentioned topic. “No, there was no question of any exclusion and there will be no question of any exclusion. This is fake news,” the Romanian president said.

“It is not the first time that a state has not been represented by the president, although it would be desirable to have the highest possible level of representation. The two states in question were represented institutionally by ambassadors, so diplomatically there is no problem. As for the conclusions of the summit, they were indeed not agreed by one Member State. But there is an agreed procedure for this, which we also have in the European Union, that when a common language cannot be found, the leaders of the meeting can issue a statement on behalf of those gathered. This is what happened here,” the Romanian president explained.

Iohannis added: “This is not a problem because the B9 is a consultative forum, it does not make decisions.” “We consult each other, we formulate points of view that we believe will improve the functioning of NATO”, the Romanian head of state pointed out.

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Hungarian military receives another 13 Gidran armoured vehicles

Hungarian military receives another 13 Gidran armoured vehicles

The Hungarian armed forces are receiving another 13 Gidran armoured vehicles at its base in Tata, in western Hungary, on Tuesday and Wednesday, the defence minister said in a statement.

Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said the new vehicles manufactured in Turkey will be used by recruits who joined the forces in the wake of a government campaign in February.

The minister said the Gidrans had first arrived at another base, in Kaposvar, in southern Hungary, where they were equipped with radios and other systems in preparation for their deployment.

Hungarian military receives another 13 Gidran armoured vehicles
Hungarian military receives another 13 Gidran armoured vehicles. Photo: honvedelem.hu

There are already 10 Gidrans in Tata, serving a rifle company under NATO’s Forward Land Forces Battle Group, the minister said.

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Orbán wants to stay out of NATO mission in Ukraine

Hungarian Foreign minister about Orbán Viktor

Hungary must stay out of a NATO mission in Ukraine at all costs, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview to public radio on Friday.

He said Hungary should not even “dip its toe” in the planning phase, adding there was a risk that Hungarian military units could be transferred to NATO command if the alliance mission in Ukraine were to get under way, and Hungarian territory used for the mission.

“We’d lose a vital part of our sovereignty if that happened … and then we wouldn’t be able to keep the Hungarian troops out of the war,” he said.

Orbán said the point at which Hungary withdrew from all NATO preparations for a Ukraine mission was “very close”, adding that such a step must be first discussed with the alliance’s current and future secretary-general.

“We must make clear that Hungary has the right to stick to the NATO basic treaty that we joined,” he said, noting that it was defined as a defence treaty.

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Hungarian defence minister: All wars are a result of human decisions

Szalay-Bobrovniczky minister hungary defence

All wars start as a result of human decisions, the defence minister said at the inauguration of the Armed Forces’ new multi-mission air defence radars in Veszprém, in western Hungary, on Friday.

“Times are tough, Europe today is preparing for war,” Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said.

The minister said more and more western European leaders were making remarks about the steps that needed to be taken to continue the war in Ukraine and the amount of ammunition and weapons that needed to be sent. There were also more and more remarks about the possibility of sending soldiers, he added.

He said that at first, there had only been talk of sending helmets to Ukraine, which was followed by artillery systems, ammunition, combat vehicles and fighter jets. Now, he added, they were talking about which NATO or European Union member state would send troops on training missions to Ukraine’s territory.

The minister said Hungary and Europe’s interest lay in putting a stop to this process, and this required strength, both in elections and on the part of the military. This was why, he added, the government had accelerated its military upgrades.

Szalay-Bobrovniczky said the Hungarian Armed Forces and its air defence capabilities would be given a boost “which was tried and tested” in combat conditions in Israel.

These multifunctional 3D radar systems, together with Norway’s NASAMS air defence systems and the four additional Gripen fighter jets purchased recently by Hungary and other equipment, “will make up the shield that guarantees the security of the Hungarian people”, the minister said.

Pietro Mazzei, CEO of Rheinmetall Canada, praised the partnership between the defence industry and the Hungarian government.

He said Rheinmetall had been able to establish an assembly, integration and testing base in Hungary that had resulted in the equipment that has been delivered.

Mazzei thanked the Armed Forces for not only devoting time to learning the technology, but also integrating it into their everyday operations.

According to press material distributed at the event, the ELM-2084 multifunctional radar is capable of supporting airspace monitoring and missile interception or artillery air defence operations.

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Hungary takes delivery of more Leopard tanks

Leopard tanks

Hungary has taken delivery of two new Leopard 2A7HU tanks that will be added to the fleet put in service at the army base in Tata, in northern Hungary, the defence ministry said on Monday.

The ministry cited Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky in a statement as saying that with the new tanks added, the army now has 13 of the armoured vehicles developed for Hungary.

With the arrival of the so-called Leopard 2A7 Driver Training Tank, the production training of tank officers and non-commissioned officers who have been successfully trained in Germany in recent years can now continue in Tata. This professional training course, which will last several months, will ensure that the personnel have the professional skills to use the new equipment, the Defence Minister said.

Leopard tanks
Photo: Defence ministry, Hungary

The number of tanks developed according to Hungarian requirements at the 11th Tank Battalion of the Vitéz Tarczay Ervin has thus increased to thirteen.

Hungary has procured altogether 44 “top-notch-technology” Leopard tanks to be delivered by 2028, the minister said.

The armoured body of the vehicle is 7.7 metres long, and with the gun forward, the length of the tank is 10.97 metres. The width without additional armour is 3.76 metres and the height is 3.03 metres. Its firepower is provided by an L55A1 type Rheinmetall tank gun with a length of L55 gauge and a 120 millimetre gauge, allowing accurate firing from a range of up to 5,000 metres.

The tank is also equipped with a 7.62 millimetre parallel-mounted machine gun, a 12.7 millimetre remotely operated machine gun and 16 76 millimetre smoke grenade launchers capable of firing fragmentation grenades.

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  • Two more Airbus H225M helicopters added to Hungarian fleet, details HERE

PM Orbán: “We do not want to shed blood for Ukraine”

PM Viktor Orbán blood for Ukraine peace march

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told participants of the Peace March in Budapest on Saturday that giving up on peace meant “choosing to die for the cause of Ukraine”, but “we do not want to shed blood for Ukraine, we will not go to war, and we will not die for somebody else on foreign soil”, he said.

“Our mission is to stay out of the war”

In a speech delivered on Margaret Island, Orbán endorsed the candidates of the Fidesz-Christian Democrats alliance in the European Parliament election and said that Hungary could only stay out of the war if Hungarian voters backed up the government.

“Do we want to shed Hungarian blood for Ukraine? No! We will not go to war, we will not die for somebody else on foreign soil,” Orbán said in his speech.

Addressing the Peace March, organised by the Civic Union (CÖF) and its foundation CÖKA, Orbán said it would be impossible to hide from the war, and that the only antidote to war was peace.

“Our mission is to stay out of the war and preserve Hungary as an island of peace,” Orbán said.

He said evil was behind world wars and urged people not to give in. The time for exorcism has come, he added.

PM Orbán talking about peace
“Peace” and Orbán. Photo: MTI

“Either we win or they win. There is no third way, only a third world war,” he said.

Orbán said there was no solution to the war on the battlefield and called for a ceasefire and peace talks.

Firstly, the election must be won next week, he said. An election victory and reinforcement from every country in Europe would pave the way for the establishment of a European pro-peace coalition in Brussels, he added, stating that a “transatlantic peace coalition” could be established in the autumn “if the Americans elect a pro-peace president”.

Orbán can be in majority?

We were “in the minority” at the start of the year, but could be “in the majority” by year-end, he said.

Referring to the European Parliament and local elections to be held on June 9, he said God had created the world in six days and commanded rest on the seventh, but now unfortunately “we must not rest even on the seventh day”, “we must put the pedal to the metal”. “Victory will come only if we all go to vote. Only peace! Only Fidesz!”, he added.

Orbán said there were already enough pro-war politicians in Brussels, so the candidates of Fidesz-Christian Democrats, headed by Tamas Deutsch, needed to “occupy Brussels”.

“We need our own kind there, who don’t believe in war and violence, but believe in the power of love and solidarity,” he added.

He said the 2022 victory of Fidesz-Christian Democrats in national elections had “raised the price of Hungarian shares on the political bourses of every capital in Europe”. Although those shares are in demand, they are not for sale, not to Brussels, not to Washington and not to George Soros, he added.

Orbán wished Fico speedy recovery

In a message to ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia, in the west of Ukraine, Orbán said the day was not far off when “your destiny will take a turn for the better”.

He also sent his regards and wished a speedy recovery to “Slovakia’s pro-peace Prime Minister” Robert Fico, adding that Fico had been shot because he stood on the side of peace, “practically giving his life for peace”. He said Fico was “carved of hard wood” and would return to put Slovakia and Hungary side by side in the fight for peace.

Orbán said the ruling parties’ victory in the European Parliament election needed to scare the Brussels bureaucrats out of their offices.

He noted that Fidesz-Christian Democrats had won all elections since the autumn of 2006, including parliamentary, local council and European elections. “We have won eleven times in one go. An absolute record, a KO, an undisputable victory,” he added.

Orbán said that the Fidesz-Christian Democrats camp was the largest, most unified and most hardened camp in all of Europe, and the ruling parties were able to campaign most successfully, theirs being the largest election army.

“Never before have so many people lined up for peace, because the only purpose of the Hungarians’ election army is to preserve peace,” he said. “We are Europe’s largest legion of peace, we are Europe’s greatest peace-preserving force,” he added.

“On the verge of a huge victory”

Orbán said the Fidesz-Christian Democrats were again “on the verge of a huge victory”.

Orbán said Fidesz had a “great chance” to score a goal, but still had to take the shot. Having a routine is an advantage in government work, but during a campaign “routine is poison, routine kills”, he added.
He said a good campaign needed a common cause and a successful campaign required heart, while passion was necessary for a winning campaign. Victory on paper doesn’t exist in politics, he added.

“Another week of hard work, the legendary Fidesz finish, and we will push the enemy off the field,” he said. He added that the task at hand was greater than ever before: to prevent Europe from rushing into war and to its ruin.

He said Europe was making preparations for war and that “every day another stretch of the road to hell is inaugurated”, pointing to initiatives involving hundreds of billions of euros for Ukraine, the deployment of nuclear weapons in the middle of Europe, the conscription of young men into a foreign army, NATO’s Ukraine mission and units of European soldiers in Ukraine.

No break on the pro-war train

“It appears that the pro-war train has no brakes, and the engine driver is insane,” he said, adding that stopping that train was at stake in the EP elections.

He said the Hungarian government knew how to do this and noted that it had earlier decoupled the “Hungarian carriage” from the pro-migration “train” and rescued Hungarian children from the hands of gender activists.

We won’t allow our children and our grandchildren to be shipped to the Ukrainian front, either, he said. “No migration, no gender, no war,” he added.

Every vote cast for Fidesz-Christian Democrats in the European Parliament election “saves lives”, he said. Every vote for Fidesz-Christian Democrats increases the weight of the pro-peace side and affirms Hungary’s decision to stay out of the war, he added.

“We can only stay out of the war if ours will be the biggest election victory in Europe,” he said.

If the left-wing wins, he added, it would only be a matter of time before the war caught up with Hungary.

Orbán said the pro-war side was “beyond common sense” and wanted to beat Russia, just as was attempted in the first and second World War, and was even ready to clash with the entire East.

Hungarians have no business on the Russian front

He likened the intoxication of war to a drug that removes all responsibility and said the pro-war side was “uninterested in the future of your children”.

“They can’t be won over, so we won’t win them over, we will defeat them,” he added.

He said the founding fathers of the EU were right in believing the continent could not bear another war. As for Hungary, “we can gain nothing in war but stand to lose everything”, he added.

He noted that the lives of one and a half million Hungarians had been lost in the first and second World War and wondered “how strong our country would be” if they hadn’t died.

“I will say it slowly, so they understand in Brussels, too: We will not enter the war. We will not march east for the third time, we will not return to the Russian front, we’ve been there before, and we have no business there,” he said.

“We will not sacrifice Hungarian youth for the profit of wartime speculators,” he added.

Orbán said that George Soros had written the “script” for a victory over Russia using Western weapons and Eastern European troops, then replacing the lives lost with migrants, 30 years earlier. He added that the Hungarian left wing were “payrolled” by Soros.

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PM Orbán: ‘Others making decisions on Hungarians’ blood unacceptable’ – interview

viktor orbán kossuth radio

Bringing back military conscription “is the internal affair of all nations”, not a matter to be decided as part of “an imperial army of the European Union in Brussels”, because “others making decisions on Hungarian blood is unacceptable”, Viktor Orbán told public radio in an interview on Friday.

United European Union army?

Whereas the draft was the business of individual nations, the German leader of the European People’s Party (EPP) had raised bringing back conscription “as part of a united European Union army”, the prime minister said, adding that this would entail taking “the fate of our own young people” away from the country’s own powers and depriving Hungary of its sovereignty. “This is unacceptable,” he said.

Bringing back the draft “is not on the agenda in Hungary”, he said, and citing “European plans” he said it was “unacceptable” for others “to decide on the blood of Hungarians”.

Meanwhile, Hungary has introduced defence studies into secondary school curriculum, Orbán said. “We are doing a lot of things that will make Hungary and the whole of society capable of self-defence without conscription,” he said.

The draft was abolished thirty years ago, at a time when “peace has been successfully established in Europe, Russia pushed back from central Europe, and NATO had basically no rival on Earth.” That meant professional servicemen were enough to effectively protect the country, he said.

He praised professional soldiers as the “best of society,” ready to change their way of life to defend the homeland.

Orbán said the values represented by servicemen, such as discipline, self-sacrifice, comradeship, and teamwork, should be present in other groups, too, and reinforced by programmes such as reserves training and military secondary education. “And summer programmes bringing young people closer to the idea bearing arms, to honour and love the homeland”, he added, without reintroducing conscription.

Meanwhile, Orbán warned that every week “brings us closer to war”. Europe “might be bringing Russian forces closer” by financing Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil, he said.

Orbán said that every week brought something “pointing towards a drift into war”. One such event was the start of negotiations on sending French training officers to Ukraine, he said. An even more concerning development, he added, was that an increasing number of players, including NATO’s Secretary-General, had said that besides self-defence, Ukraine had the right to use Western-donated weapons to attack Russia.

Orbán said he expected a “big argument” on the degree to which those weapons could be considered Ukrainian. “Russians have already announced they consider NATO to have a hand in the damage done on Russian soil,” as Ukraine would be unable to inflict it without NATO’s help. “So we have become one step more involved,” he said.

Russia had made clear its troops would advance until it had secured an area broad enough to make it impossible for Ukrainian forces to fire “into Russia’s old territory”, he said.

“We must realise that supporting Ukraine in firing at Russia bears the risk of bringing Russian forces closer to us.”

Orbán said the drifting into the war had occurred in three phases: “talks, preparation and destruction”. “We’ve moved past talks, what we’re analysing now is the matter of preparation, which puts us centimeters from actual destruction,” he said.

Western European nations, he said, were striving to win the war and felt safer because they were geographically far from Russia. Those countries saw Ukraine and central Europe as a buffer zone, he said. “It’s the same as it used to be, right? That’s what they used us for.”

Orbán said the pressure he was withstanding from Europe was growing with every summit. Resistance, he said, depended on whether “we have the country backing us”, and whether Hungary was united in its pro-peace stance, “whether we are brave enough to stand up for peace and to say we are not ready to die for Ukraine.”

NATO is a defence alliance, he said, adding that Hungary had joined for the original goal, to ensure protection and not to interfere with a conflict outside the alliance’s territory, thereby raising the threat of a world war.

Orbán called it “absurd” that “NATO is dragging its members into a world war rather than protecting them.”

As we wrote today, PM Orbán says Brussels ideology is more dangerous than Putin.

The Peace March

The Peace March demonstration to be held in Budapest on Saturday is being organised to emphasise that “Hungary is on the cusp of war and peace”, the prime minister said, adding that it was important to declare that the threat of war was real, “contrary to what many — especially in western Europe and the western-financed left wing — may say”.

“We must also make clear that Hungarians yearn for peace and we don’t think Europe could cope with another war.”

The demonstration to be held a week before the European parliamentary elections is also a reminder that “the European founding fathers, who also thought Europe could not take another war, were right”, Orbán said. While the European Union was originally a peace project, created against war, “it is now marching ahead, dragging us into one,” he said.

It should also be made clear that “we did not enter the European Union to fight a war together, to pour 100 billion euros into the war…” He added that the US Democratic administration and the leaders of the European Union were ready to feed “the monster” of war.

Orbán said European leaders must be challenged on how the bloc’s economy could possibly be restored “if we spend all our money in Ukraine”.

He said the European parliamentary election was about “making it clear to European leaders that democracy exists and the voice of the ever-growing pro-peace Europe cannot be ignored.”

He said European leaders must be pushed to make pro-peace decisions, and pro-war politicians must be “chased away.” In Hungary, only the Fidesz-led government stood for peace, Orbán said, adding that attempts to win the war in Ukraine on the battlefield would “risk a world war.”

“Let’s take back the initiative and let there be a ceasefire and negotiations — before we find ourselves in the midst of a great European war,” he said.

The prime minister said history showed that in the first stage of every war was “anger against the supporters of peace”, while pro-war supporters argued that no morally right solution existed other than war, “so whoever is on the side of peace is actually taking a morally wrong position”.

“Then it became clear that war was not a solution to conflicts between European nations,” he said, adding that a shift towards those who favoured peace took place, and the years after the devastations of the second world war “should be saved”.

The prime minister said it was possible that “we may look back on 2024 — as we did on 1914 or 1939 — as a year when the big trouble started…” This, he said, could be avoided. “It’s not true at all that every war is written in the stars. Every war is a consequence of leaders’ decisions, and if the leaders are sane, there will be no war,” he said.

Foreign minister: Government does not allow Hungary to be ‘sucked into NATO’s war madness’

ukraine

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said after an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Prague on Friday that “some statements showing a total lack of sober judgment” had been made but the government will not allow Hungary “to be sucked into NATO’s war madness”.

The ministry cited Szijjártó telling a press conference that “the war express has pulled out of the penultimate station” and it is questionable if there was still a chance to stop it.

“I think there is only one emergency brake left that we can rely on, which is the June 9 EP election, in which ballot European people, among them Hungarian voters, can make it clear for their governments that they do not want to live in war in Europe in the long term,” he said.

Szijjártó said the atmosphere of the meeting had been “as if we were in the last phases of preparation for war”.

He said several “dangerous proposals” had been made, for instance, that the Ukrainian army could aim the US weapons at Russian targets, and Western experts would be dispatched to Ukraine to train soldiers.

“We believe that with all these proposals and ideas, NATO will make more, and increasingly large steps in the direction of getting involved in the war, whereas two and a half years ago we decided together that NATO must not be part of the war,” he said.

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Heated debates expected by Orbán cabinet at NATO foreign ministers’ informal meeting on Friday

ukraine nato

Heated debates can be expected at Friday’s meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Prague, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said in Brussels on Thursday. “We can expect war psychosis to peak and [participants] to support crazier ideas than ever,” he said.

Szijjártó said he did not expect “a friendly atmosphere”, and he warned of “a very dangerous situation”, the ministry quoted him as saying.

“Apparently, our European colleagues have plunged themselves with great vigour into the deepening pits of war psychosis on Monday, and I believe that the presence of the Americans and the British will even stimulate this hysterical state,” he said.

“And I expect the meeting of NATO foreign ministers to be surrounded by an even greater pro-war atmosphere than before…” he said.

Regarding a proposal to allow Ukrainian forces to use Western weapons to fire into Russian territory, he said the Russians far from lacked equipment and were bound to retaliate, leading to “many, many more casualties”.

Arms deliveries to Ukraine would increase the number of weapons on both sides of the front, causing more deaths.

“Even the NATO decision to cross the red line that we drew ourselves two years ago in February is very dangerous. NATO crossed this red line by increasing its own role in coordinating weapons deliveries and the training of Ukrainian soldiers,” he said.

He noted that preparations for NATO’s Ukraine mission had been progressing at full tilt in recent weeks, which was “extremely dangerous” and contrary to the alliance’s original mission, as the organisation was not under attack.

“There is no need to use war rhetoric or create war tension,” the minister said. “This is a defence alliance, not one designed to attack.”

He said the government had made it clear in recent weeks that “no Hungarian soldiers can take part in such operations, no Hungarian territories can be used for such operations and no Hungarian taxpayers funds can be used either.” Yet Hungary was being “put under pressure to join this”, he added.

“Naturally, I will continue to resist tomorrow, and make it clear that there is no way Hungary can be forced to join this operation. And it is still unclear how the mission can go ahead without Hungarian taxpayers’ money being used. So heated debates can be expected tomorrow,” Szijjarto said.

Anti-Hungarian Romanian President Iohannis as NATO Secretary General candidate supported by Orbán’s cabinet

Iohannis

Hungary does not support Mark Rutte’s candidacy for NATO secretary general, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said on Monday, adding that as complete trust was an essential requirement in the alliance, and the Dutch leader had in the past talked about “bringing Hungary to its knees”.

At a press conference held in Tirgu Mures (Marosvásárhely), Szijjártó welcomed that Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, an “eastern candidate” for the post, had emerged.

He said much talk focused on strengthening the alliance’s eastern flank but “it doesn’t occur to anyone that if a threat is from the east, then the secretary general might also be from the east”.

The minister said that in NATO “you even have to die for each other, so it must be led by someone in whom we can trust 100 percent”.

He confirmed that he had a tough debate with his Lithuanian counterpart in Brussels earlier in the day. He insisted that Gabrielius Landsbergis was “one of the most pro-war politicians” among the EU foreign ministers. “No matter how much someone shouts at me … I still favour peace,” he said.

Many were surprised by the Hungarian Foreign Minister’s statement, because despite his minority (Saxon) origin, Iohannis did not defend the interests of Hungarians in Transylvania during his presidency. According to pro-government media Magyar Hírlap, in fact, according to the National Council for Combating Discrimination (CNCD), Klaus Iohannis insulted the human dignity of his fellow Hungarians when he mocked his Social Democratic political opponents by greeting them in Hungarian in 2020, accusing the party of selling out Transylvania.

In 2020, Hunor Kelemen, the President of the Hungarian Democratic Alliance of Romania (RMDSZ), called for Iohannis’s apology for his “hysterical, unworthy of a state president, reminiscent of the violent and dangerous policies of the Greater Romania Party.”

We have witnessed an unprecedented manifestation of misinformation and incitement to hatred against Hungarians from the microphone of the presidential palace in the last thirty years,” the RMDSZ president said.

While one candidate’s long-ago speech seems unforgivable for the Hungarian government, the other candidate’s outburst is acceptable.

  • read also: Romanian president fined by Romanian authorities because of anti-Hungarian hate speech – details HERE

Szijjarto highlights ‘exceptional significance’ of EP elections in Hungary, Romania

On Monday, the European parliamentary and municipal elections on June 9 “will be exceptionally important” both in Hungary and Romania, Szijjártó said in Tirgu Mures (Marosvásárhely).

The more MEPs Fidesz and the Hungarian Democratic Alliance of Romania (RMDSZ) have, “the stronger the voice of peace in Brussels will be”, he told a joint press conference with Hunor Kelemen, RMDSZ’s leader.

“Romania and Hungary have lived in the neighbourhood of war for two and a half years… It will not surprise us that we Hungarians want the swiftest possible peace.”

“We Hungarians don’t want to get involved in the war in the neighbourhood … we do not want a nuclear war,” he said.

Szijjártó noted that Hungary and Romania are scheduled to hold their European parliamentary and municipal elections on the same day. “On June 9 we will decide whether we want peace or war, and we will elect the officials to lead local communities,” he said.

Szijjarto said both Fidesz and RMDSZ supported peace and trusted that there would be as many pro-peace deputies in the EP as possible. He said the two parties have an interest in good Hungary-Romania cooperation and that “the stronger RMDSZ is in Romania, the easier it is to build good ties.”

“The stronger representation RMDSZ has in municipalities, the stronger the Hungarian communities will be, and the stronger they are, the stronger and more stable support they can provide for good cooperation between Hungary and Romania,” Szijjártó said, calling on ethnic Hungarian voters in Romania to support RMDSZ.

Szijjarto said he had pledged continued, close cooperation between the Hungarian government and RMDSZ, “in order to build further success stories in bilateral cooperation, especially in the economy. The government will work together with RMDSZ to promote Romania’s long-deserved Schengen entry,” he added.

As we wrote today, Hungarian businessman to own one of Romania’s largest telecoms companies, details HERE.

PM Orbán wants Hungary to be non-participant in the NATO: will Budapest be expelled?

PM Viktor Orbán Joe Biden NATO - diplomacy

PM Orbán introduced a new phrase in his regular weekly interview this Friday. He would like Hungary to become a non-participant member state. NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg reacted rigidly. He said they would not let anybody undermine the alliance’s unity.

Hungarian veto against arming Ukraine

According to politico.eu, PM Orbán talked about a special status for Hungary in NATO. He said he would like Hungary to become a non-participant country in operations outside the military alliance’s territory.

That comes after Hungary baulked the unanimous decision of using EUR 2 billion, the profit of an approximately EUR 190 billion frozen Russian asset stored in the Belgian depository Euroclear. That money would have been used to buy arms for Ukraine and help Kyiv’s struggle against the Russian invasion.

“Now a new term has been invented to describe the Hungarian position in NATO, it is called non-participation. We are not a participant now,” Orbán said. That means Hungary will not participate in actions outside the alliance’s territory.

NATO EU Viktor Orbán military kickout
Photo: facebook.com/orbanviktor

Hungarian opposition pro-war?

Orbán and his government have been warning of an uncontrollable escalation into a world war for months. The country has been crammed with billboards for weeks shouting “War!” and depicting opposition politicians. The Hungarian government says a considerable international lobby aims at the EU and NATO to enter the war in Ukraine. And they have subsidiaries in Hungary: the opposition parties and critical NGOs.

The communication campaign seems to work: despite the presidential clemency scandal stabbing into the heart of the Fidesz world, Orbán’s party leads all the polls just two weeks before the 9 June European parliamentary elections.

Hungary undermining NATO unity?

Probably that is why Orbán baulks such decisions: he does not want to lose popular support. But Western media suggests another scenario. They believe that Orbán maintains his relationship with Russian President Putin. Therefore, preventing such a decision and “undermining the alliance’s unity” is just part of Orbán’s “courting” to Putin.

Orbán and Putin nato
Photo: Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Orbán regularly says that Russia will never attack the West but suggests that the West would do otherwise. “How many more weapons will we send? How much more money will we send?” Orbán asked in an interview in Hungary’s public media. “This gives rise to the darkest visions,” he concluded.

Stoltenberg would allow Ukrainians to conduct attacks in Russia with American weapons

Meanwhile, Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of NATO, told the Economist that they make consensual decisions. He added they would be able to baulk undermining the unity of the alliance.

NATO Sweden Orbán Stoltenberg
Orbán (c) and Stoltenberg (l). Photo: FB/Orbán

Stoltenberg even slammed Washington in his latest interview with the Economist. He said they should allow Ukrainians to use the weapons they give them on Russian territory. He added that a heavy fight is ongoing in Kharkiv, which is only kilometres from the Russian border. Therefore, they should allow the Ukrainian forces to use American weapons against the Russian invasion forces standing in Russian territory.

Read also:

  • Putin-Orbán friendship: British generals shared Hungary’s disgraceful role after a Russian attack against NATO – Read more HERE
  • Hungarian government sends email to public concerning NATO plans on Ukraine war

National Defence Day in Hungary celebrated today

Today celebrated National Defence Day in Hungary

A shared remembrance “of our past allows us to recommit ourselves to continuing the thousand-year journey in defense of the Hungarian nation”, the defence minister said marking National Defence Day on Tuesday.

“Looking into the past, we see huge military achievements, such as the thousand-year-old state of St. Stephen, whose military heroes made surviving through victories and defeats possible…” Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said at the ceremony in Buda Castle.

“And then there’s the Hungarian Armed Forces established at the birth of the modern Hungarian nation, which has been at the service of the nation in times of peace, war, oppression and freedom.”

He said it was up to the government and diplomacy to ensure that the most important decisions in the life of the nation were still made in the nation’s capital.

“But in these times we have to be especially careful that nothing that goes against our fundamental national interests can be forced on us,”

he said, emphasising that defence played an important part in this.

Today celebrated National Defence Day in Hungary
Today celebrated National Defence Day in Hungary. Photo: MTI

Hungary, he said, had reason to be satisfied with its accomplishments in recent years, noting that it was building a high-tech military, and defence spending now exceeded 2 percent of GDP. He stressed the newly-built defense industry plants, the manufacturing of Lynx armored infantry fighting vehicles in Zalaegerszeg, small arms in Kiskunfélegyháza, Airbus helicopters in Gyula, the ammunition plant in Várpalota, and the production of Turkish Gidran armored fighting vehicles in Győr.

Szalay-Bobrovniczky said the military upgrade was underway, but there was still more to be done, and serious efforts were needed “to prepare for everything we can be presented within such times of war.” He said Hungary had to be capable of responding appropriately to every challenge.

Hungary has observed National Defence Day since May 21, 1992 to commemorate the retaking of Buda Castle on this day in 1849 after a three-week-long siege.

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Putin-Orbán friendship: British generals shared Hungary’s disgraceful role after a Russian attack against NATO

Putin Orbán Russian gas disgraceful role

A British tabloid wrote about how some former British army chiefs imagined WW3 would start until next summer, provided Ukraine did not get the needed help from the West. In their scenario, Hungary has a disgraceful role. The British generals believed Budapest would be the first nail in NATO’s coffin.

Summer Russian offensives can lead to WW3

The Sun asked General Sir Richard Shirreff and General Richard Barrons, ex-leaders of the country’s armed forces, how they believed WW3 would escalate if Ukraine did not get enough help from the West. The generals believe the first step would be the fall of the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine following a devastating Russian strike.

Afterwards, Putin would become bolder and would continue their attacks not only in Ukraine but also in the Baltic region, the Caucasus and Moldova. And that is when NATO comes into question. All the Baltic states are NATO members, so an attack against Estonia or Lithuania (they do not calculate with Latvia) would mean an attack against all member states, including the United States of America.

NATO EU Viktor Orbán military kickout digraceful role
PM Orbán on a NATO maneuver. Photo: facebook.com/orbanviktor

Hungary would have a disgraceful role

However, Putin would be able to break the alliance’s unity with the help of three Central European countries, the British generals said. That is because Hungary, Austria and Slovakia would conclude deals with Putin.

Afterwards, Macron would deploy French troops in Kyiv. Moscow would answer with tactical nukes, which would lead to WW3. The article does not discuss why Hungary would negotiate with the Russians after decades of Soviet occupation (which is a bad memory here). Moreover, they do not answer the question of what consequences a tactical nuclear weapon explosion in Kyiv would mean for Hungary, being not far from the Ukrainian capital.

PM Orbán and Macron digraceful role
Macron and Orbán. Will Macron start a global war? Photo: FB/Dániel Deák

UK afraid of not garnering enough support for Ukraine?

Anyway, the scenario is just a fantasy right now and shows that the United Kingdom is afraid of not garnering enough support for Ukraine to evade the coming Russian offensives.

For example, Donald Trump does not seem too committed to maintaining the current level of weapons and ammunition deliveries to Ukraine. But that may change after his possible victory in November. The Hungarian government regularly highlights that peace is unimaginable without Trump, but that does not mean Trump’s victory would result in immediate ceasefire and peace talks.

trump orbán 2024
Photo: Facebook/Orbán Balázs

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Hungarian government: one of the two EU pro-peace premiers shot, only Orbán remains capable of action

PM Orbán's favourite Budapest downtown bar found

The government’s actions serve to protect Hungarian interests in every respect, including national security, Tamás Menczer, the communications director of the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance, said in a video on Facebook on Friday.

Responding to a question from commercial television channel RTL concerning a report that Russian intelligence services had infiltrated the Hungarian foreign ministry’s IT systems two years ago, Menczer said he did not discuss national security matters with the press.

Menczer said that like every other country, Hungary, too, was a target of attempted influence and intelligence-gathering operations, and it was the job of the relevant agencies to counter those attempts and take the necessary steps.

He noted that in 2015, news portal 444.hu had been the one to report that the United States had eavesdropped on then German Chancellor Angela Merkel, while Merkel had listened in on then French President Nicolas Sarközy. “There are even serious cases of NATO and European Union allies eavesdropping on each other,” Menczer said.

Former PM Gyurcsány brought the Russians into the secret service

“Unlike the left, we always act in line with Hungarian interests when it comes to matters of national security,” he said, adding that former Socialist prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsány had “brought the Russians into the secret service, and if I recall correctly, someone was even jailed for this”.

Menczer said he was “extremely curious as to which secret service 444 cooperates with and who is funding it to release information that concerns and weakens national security” at a time “when one of the EU’s two pro-peace prime ministers is shot, and only one, Viktor Orbán, remains capable of action, and we’re protecting Hungary’s peace and security”.

Europe moving towards peace, development at stake in election

What’s at stake in the European Parliament elections is whether Europe will move towards peace and development, an official of the foreign ministry said on Friday. Levente Magyar told a press conference in Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár) in Romania that change was needed because European leaders could be doing more to bring the war in Europe to an end, but this was currently not happening.

Brussels, he said, had been hindering economic development, so the EU needed “pro-business leaders”. He expressed hope that in the elections this year Transylvanian Hungarians would strengthen their political positions in local governments, in Bucharest and in Brussels, saying that this would also strengthen the alliance between Hungary and ethnic Hungarians in Transylvania.

Read also:

Hungarian defence minister: We want peace but must be prepared to defend ourselves

hungarian defence minister kristóf szalay-bobrovniczky

Hungary is a member of the European Union and NATO; “we want peace but must also be prepared to defend ourselves”, the defence minister said in an interview with news portal Index on Thursday.

hungarian defence minister kristóf szalay-bobrovniczky
Photo: Facebook/Szalay-Bobrovniczky Kristóf

Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said that even being a NATO member, only those countries that had an independent, genuinely capable and powerful army could defend themselves.

“If a member state does not have that, then even NATO does not guarantee sufficient protection,” he said. The strength of NATO, he said, came from the contributions of its members, and if this task went unfulfilled, NATO would be nothing more than a few well-decorated generals in Brussels giving commands, with no one to carry them out.

“We are determined to preserve peace from a position of power, also in a military sense,” he said. “This is how the independent defence force and the security provided by NATO complement each other.”

He said Hungary argued against everyone who said sending NATO troops to Ukraine was unavoidable and necessary. For the Hungarian government this would pose a clear problem of escalation, so “we argue against its intention and aim, and we definitely cannot support it”, he added. He said Hungary’s position remained unchanged and it would not send weapons, ammunition or people to the conflict.

Commenting on Hungary’s Chad mission, he said Hungarians and the whole of Europe had a vested interest in ensuring that anyone who wants to set off from Chad should have a reason to stay instead. “If we can contribute to stability and reining in migration, then we are happy and proud to do that,” he added.

He said the development of Hungary’s military industry was extremely important, adding that it went beyond modernising the army, because military sovereignty also required a significant defence industry.

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FM Szijjártó: Voters to choose between pro-peace, pro-war sides in June elections rather than left and right

Hungarian government foreign minister Péter Szijjártó

Next month’s European Parliament and local council elections will be a choice between pro-peace and pro-war sides rather than left and right, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said in Budapest on Tuesday.

Speaking at a podium discussion at the Kozma Istvan Hungarian Wrestling Academy, Szijjártó said the coming election was especially significant given the amount of pressure Hungary was under.

He said that in the past, “we could say that … there are people from certain walks of life, like soldiers, who use their common sense … and are aware that everything comes with a consequence”.

“Unfortunately, we’ve had to let this illusion go, because in addition to the European Union, even NATO is now sliding into the preparation for war which can now practically be considered madness,” Szijjártó said, according to a ministry statement, calling it “unacceptable” that certain European politicians were now talking about nuclear weapons.

“So we’re not talking about kindergarteners or extremists who will never get close to having power and who have lost their minds, but elected leaders with decision-making power in European political life who are considered serious and who don’t mention the use of nuclear weapons as a dirty word, but rather a possible scenario,” the minister said.

Szijjártó noted that NATO had previously decided that it was not party to the war in Ukraine and that everything possible had to be done to prevent a direct confrontation with Russia, as it would lead to a world war.

“So we drew this red line … and now we’ve started erasing it,” he said, lamenting that NATO was looking to step up its coordination of weapons deliveries and the training of Ukrainian troops, and was planning to approve a 100 billion euro aid package for Kyiv.

He underlined that the Hungarian government did not want to contribute to this plan “in any way”, and that the aim was for Hungarian soldiers to be exempt from participating in such a mission, to avoid “any similar action” happening on Hungary’s territory, and to ensure that Hungarian taxpayers’ money would not be used for the mission.

He said this plan would not bring a quicker end to the war, arguing that the conflict could not be resolved on the battlefield and that weapons deliveries were only prolonging the fighting.

Szijjártó said a favourable outcome in the June elections “would go a long way to mounting effective opposition” to NATO’s proposal, as it could be used to demonstrate in Brussels “that the Hungarian people don’t want any of this”.

Read also: