Published 18 July 2024 at 11.18
Foreign. Donald Trump will quickly demand peace talks between Russia and Ukraine if he wins the US presidential election in November. This is what Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban claims after private conversations with the Republican candidate. Now he is met with anger by the EU leadership.
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EU should resume direct diplomatic relations with Russia and start “high-level” negotiations with China to find a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine.
That's what Viktor Orban writes in a letter to EU leaders, after the Hungarian Prime Minister visited Ukraine, Russia and China for consultations with the leaders there.
Orban states that the “general observation” during these talks was “that the intensity of the military conflict will escalate radically in the near future”.
However, he notes that the situation could soon be very different – if Donald Trump wins in the US presidential election in November, reports the Financial Times.
“We cannot expect any peace initiative from [Trump] until the election. However, I can confidently state that shortly after his election victory, he will not wait until he is sworn in, but will be ready to immediately act as a peace broker,” Orban writes in his letter, which was sent to European Council President Charles Michel and other EU leaders.
“He has detailed and well-founded plans for this,” the Hungarian prime minister continues.
This means, according to Orban, that the EU has everything to gain by anticipating the change in US policy, and either embracing the need for immediate negotiations between Russia and Ukraine or taking on more responsibility for financing Ukraine's defense.
“I am more than convinced that if Trump wins the election, which appears likely, the share of the economic burden between the US and the EU will change significantly to the detriment of the EU in terms of the financial support of Ukraine,” he writes.
EU response: Stop
In a response to Orban's letter, Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, warns the Hungarian prime minister that he has no EU mandate to hold talks on the war.
“The rotating presidency of the Council has no role to play in representing the Union on the international stage and has received no mandate from the European Council to engage on behalf of the Union” , Michel writes to Orban in the letter, according to Reuters.
Michel also rejects Orban's claim that the EU had pursued a “war-friendly” policy in Ukraine.
“It is the opposite. Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine is the victim exercising its legitimate right to self-defense,” writes Michel.
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