NATO should return to its original mission of being an alliance for peace, Hungarian Prime Minister said upon arriving in Washington for the military alliance’s 75th anniversary summit.
He was greeted by U.S. President Joe Biden and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
“NATO started 75 years ago as a peace project. We should remember that today,” Orbán said in a Facebook post.
“NATO was launched 75 years ago to protect the security of its members. Today, however, it seems to be moving away from its original purpose and is increasingly behaving like a war organization,” he added.
Orbán said that “one sign of this is that NATO is taking an increasingly active role in the Russian-Ukrainian war. In our view, this is dangerous and even irresponsible because no one can see how this will end and where it will lead us,” he warned.
The prime minister also shared the position he would take at the summit.
“I will argue today that NATO should return to its original spirit. NATO should win peace, not the wars around it,” he said.
To do this, he explained, “we should first and foremost develop our own defense capabilities.”
“On behalf of Hungary, I will therefore confirm today that we will not continue to participate in NATO’s mission to Ukraine, but we will fully comply with our obligations to develop Hungarian defense capabilities,” he added.
