After his appearance at the NATO meeting in Riga, Latvia, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is coming to Hungary to discuss the situation in Ukraine with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán,
Hungarian media writes that the main topic is likely to be Hungary’s participation in missions in third countries.
Although the prime minister already made a largely overlooked reference to this, media only put two and two together after the news that Stoltenberg is coming to Hungary.
Orbán said that after the campaign and the elections, they must now return to the small work of government, but in the meantime, they must also keep an eye on the question of war or peace, because “even if government work improves or reaches a higher standard, if we get into a war, everything will be in the balance.”
“We have to stay out of the war. In two days, the NATO secretary general will be here, we are discussing how Hungary can stay out of the NATO mission in Ukraine, and we also have to deal with everyday tasks,” he said.
Business news portal Portfolio notes that the term “mission in Ukraine” is the prime minister’s interpretation, and there is no official mention of such a mission or of sending NATO troops to fight in Ukraine. On the latter issue, several countries are trying to cooperate in sending military trainers to Ukraine.
Foreign affairs expert József Szabó told hirado.hu earlier that significant military contingents from NATO member states could be in Ukraine at the moment and have been in the past. These are carrying out training tasks, or, for example, German soldiers are maintaining German military equipment. and advisory tasks, but they are not part of NATO.
The information about the meeting with Jens Stoltenberg comes after it was earlier revealed that a legal solution is being worked on to prevent Hungary from participating in missions outside NATO. This will apparently be discussed between the two sides.
Meanwhile, on Monday night, it emerged that Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok did not attend Tuesday’s summit of the Bucharest Nine in Riga, where the nine countries are represented annually at a presidential level, and thus for the first time since 2015, no final statement will be issued on behalf of the presidents. Hungary was represented by its ambassador in Riga.
