VIDEO: President Biden shook hands only with PM Orbán – start of a new era?

Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, hosted NATO’s latest summit, which US President Joe Biden and Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, also attended. Prior to taking the family photo, Biden shook hands with only one country leader, Orbán. Hungarian media speculated he might have made a mistake or confused Orbán with someone else because the political branch of the Hungarian-American relationship is at a historic low due to a number of disagreements, for example, one concerning Ukraine and the ongoing war in Hungary’s neighbour.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán initially condemned the Russian aggression in Ukraine when it broke out in February 2022. But ever since, he has been campaigning for ceasefire and peace. Moreover, the Orbán cabinet maintained Russia’s dominant position in Hungary’s energy market. What’s more, they currently aim at Russians to build new reactor blocks in Paks. On top of that, the cabinet regularly advocates for removing Russian oligarchs and church leaders from the EU’s sanctions list.

Several Western analysts and politicians believe Hungary has a “pro-Russia” stance concerning the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Orbán’s party, having a supermajority in the parliament, regularly highlights they just want the bloodshed to be over as soon as possible. That’s the reason why they maintained communication channels with Russia and still cooperate with Moscow, at least economically.

No wonder the American-Hungarian political relationship has been going through a rough patch lately. For instance, this March Washington unilaterally terminated a crucial tax treaty with Hungary, which was meant to shun double taxation. We wrote about that decision HERE.

Handshake before “family photo” with Biden

With all that in mind, it was pretty odd to see US President Joe Biden shaking hands only with one country leader before taking the NATO summit “family photo”: PM Viktor Orbán. Here is the video:

Biden shook hands with just one leader during the on-camera “family photo” event at NATO summit in Vilnius: Hungary’s @PM_ViktorOrban.

Hungary said today it now supports Sweden’s accession, and ratification is purely a “technical matter.” pic.twitter.com/i2Y6GQIgSi

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) July 11, 2023

As we reported earlier, Hungary expressed its support towards granting Sweden the green light to join the military alliance. Orbán said it was just a technical matter when the parliament would ratify the Swedish bid.

Here is Orbán’s photo, moments before their handshake with President Biden: