Could Hungarian PM Orbán face consequences for his diplomatic world tour?

euronews (in English)

The Hungarian autocrat has popped up in in Kyiv, Moscow, and Beijing just as his country takes over the presidency of the Council of the EU. But to what end?

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00:00Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban has arrived in Beijing on Monday in a surprise visit.

00:12His trip follows an unexpected visit to Russia last week, where he proposed that Ukraine

00:16should consider agreeing to an immediate ceasefire with Russia.

00:23Diplomatic sources say that Orban has caused concerns over deliberately displaying the

00:27logo of the EU rotating presidency in his communications, instead of making it clear

00:33that he is representing his own country.

00:40The Hungarian Prime Minister is widely seen as having a close relationship with Russian

00:44President Vladimir Putin.

00:49What we see is a strategic campaign to ridicule the European Union and to demonstrate that

00:56actually Prime Minister Orban can go on with all of these uncoordinated steps, which are

01:01clear violations of joint and agreed EU positions, and does not need to fear any negative consequences.

01:10Because he knows that with this, on the one hand, he also expands his future space to

01:19manoeuvre and future political autonomy, but also that seriously undermines the perception

01:26of the EU foreign policy among key partners.

01:35Experts say that despite Orban's efforts, they are unlikely to have any tangible impact

01:40on a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

01:45I think Prime Minister Orban is the only European head of state or government who is

01:50ready to talk to Mr Putin and actually violate the basic principle jointly established by

01:56EU member states, that there is no talk about Ukraine without Ukraine.

02:01So it's not the ability, it's just the readiness.

02:04I don't see any positive contribution of this sort of travelling diplomacy to the solution

02:12of the war in Ukraine, because that would require the involvement of all partners.

02:24European ambassadors will discuss Orban's recent visits in a meeting on Wednesday.

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