The Hungarian prime minister’s meeting with Vladimir Putin sends “a very wrong message”, says Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met with Russian President Putin in China in mid-October. It was Putin’s second meeting with a European leader since February 2022, when he launched the invasion of Ukraine, after he received Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer in April 2022.
“It’s really more than strange to see that we start to flirt with the regime which is committing [...] very cruel atrocities in the territory of Ukraine. It sends a very wrong message to everybody, first to the international community and also to Ukraine,” the president said as he arrived for a European Council meeting in Brussels.
Nausėda insisted that Ukraine’s defeat would worsen the security situation across the EU.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has previously publicly slammed Orbán, saying she was disappointed with the Hungarian leader.
Nausėda also urged the EU to stay united and not to succumb in to war fatigue.
“This is very important, especially now in this critical stage of the war, to stay united, not to split our foreign policy because, otherwise, it will be the policy of 27 members. We have no right to do that,” he said in Brussels.
He vowed to raise the issue of financial support for Ukraine at the EU summit.
As the European Commission proposed last summer a review of the EU budget to allow for an additional 50 billion euros in aid to Kyiv, the Lithuanian president says such aid would not be sufficient, “unless we are committed to come back to this issue”.
As the EU continues discussions on the 12th sanction package for Russia, Nausėda reiterated the need to include Russia’s nuclear energy giant Rosatom, drones and other technologies in it.
EU leaders are meeting in Brussels as Kyiv awaits the EC’s conclusion on the country’s chances of starting accession negotiations. The Commission is expected to announce its position in November, and then EU leaders will be expected to take the final decision.
The European Council will also discuss the call for a so-called “humanitarian pause” in Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Speaking with journalists, Nausėda said Israel had the right to defend itself, but without violating international humanitarian law, echoing the European Council’s previously expressed position.
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