Today Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijártó, at a time when at the beginning of the NATO summit in Washington, most allies hope to send a message of support to Kiev, said Hungary sees former US President Donald Trump's potential return as a "chance for peace" in Ukraine, reported Reuters, quoted by BTA.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán visited Moscow last week as part of what he called a "mission for peace," but his initiative angered some of Budapest's NATO allies, who said the visit gave legitimacy to the claims of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin to the territories of Ukraine captured after the start of the Russian invasion in 2022.
US President Joe Biden has been under pressure since the disastrous June 27 debate, which polls said boosted Trump ahead of the Nov. 5 election and raised concerns among allies about how the Republican nominee would approach the alliance and the war in Ukraine.
In an interview in Washington, Szijjártó said Hungary's goal was to end the war through peace talks involving both Russia and Ukraine. "I think it takes a very strong external influence to get them to at least negotiate," he said. "Who has a chance to do that in the coming period? It's only President Trump if he's elected," added Szijjarto.
In his words, Orbán's recent meetings with Putin and with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have demonstrated the huge chasm separating the two countries and other Western leaders are unwilling or unable to bridge it.
According to Trump, he will quickly end the war. However, the former president has not presented a detailed plan for how he will achieve this, Reuters notes, but adds that last month advisers to the former president presented him with a plan to end the war, part of which is to make it a condition of any future aid to Kiev Ukraine to participate in peace negotiations.
Szijjártó also said that Hungary does not consider Russia a threat to NATO or EU members, and that Russia's leaders are "rational" and would not risk direct conflict with the West.
At the summit, NATO allies are expected to approve an arms and training package for Ukraine. Szijjártó said Hungary would not prevent NATO from approving the plan, but would not participate in it. "We see a risk of escalation there," he said. "Watching this war from a distance of two hours by car or from a distance of 10 hours by plane. These are different points of view, believe me," said Szijjártó, who also mentioned the fate of Ukrainian refugees in Hungary, as well as ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine.