What is Hungary’s Orban trying to achieve with his 'peace missions' ? | DW News

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban meets Trump hungary's prime minister Victor Orban has met with former US president Donald Trump in his maralago home in Florida that will likely aggravate and frustrate Western allies along with the similar secretive trips he made to Russia and China in recent days the Trump visit is the latest stop in what Auburn has labeled his peace Mission since taking over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU at the beginning of July hungary's Victor Orban has been making himself busy he's been on a self-styled peace initiative meeting world leaders and numbering the trips as he goes his first trip was to keev where he met with Ukrainian President Vladimir zalinski before heading to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin a trip that irked many in Brussels and across the EU on his third trip which he dubbed peace Mission 3.0 Orban headed to Beijing where he met with Chinese president Xi Jinping he said that China was key to creating the conditions for peace between Ukraine and Russia then a flight to Washington DC for the NATO Summit on the summit Sidelines he met with Turkish president Reep t erdogan for peace Mission 4.0 he reportedly asked for turkey's support for the Hungarian peace initiative the fifth install zman saw Orban head to Florida to meet with former president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump after the meeting Orban a longtime Trump supporter posted on X that Trump would solve the war in Ukraine the Hungarian prime minister's unilateral push for peace has not been warmly welcomed by his NATO allies though it did lead to a rare moment of agreement between French president Emanuel mcon and German Chancellor Olaf Schultz it's his choice but let's be clear he didn't do this as the president of the European Union for the coming six months he was not in that role it was as the prime minister of Hungary that he chose to make that trip that was his choice as representative of a Sovereign Nation all of these trips by Mr Orban happened as the prime minister of his country no one wants to limit him in that and no one would want that but he did not act on half of the European Council these early days of his EU presidency seem to have only solidified orban's reputation as an outsider on the inside of Europe and of NATO and for more on that I'm now joined Chatham Houses' Armida van Rij explains Orban's aims by amid fenry she's a senior research fellow at chattam house think tank in London um amida what is your take on orban's so-called peace initiative what's his aim I mean any kind of Peace initiative at the moment or peace negotiations at the moment just mean capitulation for Ukraine and are just terrible for Ukraine and European security more broadly and only serve to undermine the EU and NATO and Ukraine itself most importantly um I mean he's clearly using uh his new platform as uh holding the the presidency of the EU Council to try and Advance his own um isolationist views on this topic um but he has absolutely no mandate but also no legitimacy to really do this new uh you wrote an article U where you said that orban's travels tell a story of disruption what do you mean by that yes and that's a piece on the chattam House website by that I mean looking at the timing so he has undertaken all of these trips within the first two weeks in taking over the presidency of the EU Council he is deliberately blurring the lines over whether he is undertaking these trips as prime minister of um of Hungary or while holding the rotating presidency you know if we look at the promotional materials he has used um the Hungarian presidency hashtags on promotional U materials he has displayed EU Flags while being in keev so all of that serves to blur the boundaries which the EU themselves has said um his strips are illegal um and are in breach of the EU treaties um it's been reported in both Chinese and Russia media that he was there as a representative of the EU so even though he himself has said oh that is not the case and I'm here you know this is a bilateral trip the fact that that's not how it's being seen in China or in Russia is hugely problematic and just goes to the point that he's blurring the boundaries he's trying to cause disruption and he's trying to put forward and Advance his own agenda now as we've heard in the report both from Olaf Schulz and Emanuel macron many in the EU and the EU itself made clear that they are not on board with with Orban there but are there any tools the EU could use in response to this I mean this is the million-dollar question at the moment um there's obviously the article 7 tool whereby a member State's voting rights could potentially be taken away but that requires a unanimous vote in the EU Council that's unlikely to happen because certainly Slovakia would um support Orban um others have talked about the potential of shortening uh the Hungarian presidency whereby Poland's who's next uh to take over the presidencies would be extended but that would not require majority but only four or five member states to vote for it but I just can't see member states wanting to use their political capital on this whether that's that's right or wrong but I think the main thing that we can potentially do and that we need to bear in mind is that Hungary is the eu's third largest net benefactor of EU funds and so the European commission has that huge financial leverage over Hungary at the moment which it just hasn't used well enough yet so looking at the Hungary problem within the EU at the moment um as a three4 challenge which you know it is this disruption and abuse of using the presidency it it's also orban's more obstructive position more broadly U by blocking you know EU aid for Ukraine and other positions he's taken that are quite um uh where he's quite isolated and then the third one is the backsliding the Democratic backsliding in Hungary itself which Orban has very much encouraged and facilitated and enabled so if we look at that whole challenge as a set of three um that's where the commission can use the financial average it has to try and kind of rope Orban back in I'm me there chattam house in London thank you very much thank you we can speak now to DW DW's Bernd Riegert on reaction to Orban's trips correspondent bandri in Brussels bound good to see you Orban met with former US president Trump after the NATO Summit he's calling it a peace Mission taking into account that both of them rather have pro-russian views do you think European leaders will think that this will all be to the detriment of Ukraine it will certainly not help Ukraine the EU leaders are afraid that Russia could be under the impression that the West is now uh divid Ed in the cause for Ukraine and they also afraid that Donald Trump if he makes it back into the White House in the fall will sell out Ukraine's uh interests to make a peace deal a so-called peace deal uh fast with Russia um but the EU says it's only up to Ukraine to determine and when and how ceasefire talks or peace talks could even start um so it's it's very um difficult for the EU to see the anything positive in in orban's trip to Trump Mr Orban is a St supporter um of Donald Trump and he's more seen as a Loose Cannon as as a renegade by the other European leaders now this meeting of course B comes just after Orban met with Vladimir zalinski Vladimir Putin and xiin ping it sounds like auan is really not on the same page as European leaders well there is no common page if you will the EU leaders all of them but Orban are on the other side they say there cannot be peace talks and Orban is not dealing on behalf or speaking traveling on behalf of the EU at all although auban on the other hand says in interviews that he is taking seizing the moment that he's now the EU council president and wants to use this extra weight uh to to promote um his so-called Mission so it's very difficult for the EU to to handle this now this is unprecedented never before an EU council president even has acted like that b the EU says Orban isn't acting on its behalf some are even calling for him to be disciplined will Victor Orban face any kind of consequences well that is also difficult the legal services of the EU are now checking in the background if there is any possibility to strip Mr Orban of the council presidency all this is also unprecedented but it's very unlikely that this will happen um the EU is now agreeing more or less on a kind of a go slow strike concerning the Hungarian presiden presidency so they will not attend highlevel meetings that the presidency is calling for um to punish Mr auban this is kind of a diplomatic punishment if you will but will Mr Orban be impressed by that that is very doubtful that was our correspondent B red in Brussels B thank you very much