Viktor Orbán has claimed that Donald Trump has “detailed and well-founded” plans for peace between Russia and Ukraine in a letter to a top EU body that is likely to inflame tensions about the Hungarian prime minister’s diplomatic freelancing.
Orbán, who met Trump at his Palm Beach compound last week, said in his letter to the president of the European Council, who organises meetings of the bloc’s 27 national leaders, that the Republican presidential nominee was ready to act as peace broker “immediately” after his election.
The “likely outcome” of a Trump victory meant that the EU should reopen “direct lines of diplomatic communication” with Russia and “high-level political talks” with China, Orbán wrote in the letter addressed to the council’s president, Charles Michel, which was first reported by the Financial Times. The Guardian has seen a copy.
The Hungarian prime minister said Trump’s expected victory would mean that the financial burden of supporting Ukraine’s war effort would shift to the EU.
“I am more than convinced that in the likely outcome of the victory of President Trump, the proportion of the financial burden between the US and the EU will significantly change to the EU’s disadvantage when it comes to the financial support of Ukraine,” he wrote.
Orbán also said that after his recent talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, “the general observation” was that “the intensity of the military conflict will radically escalate in the near future”.
European strategy, Orbán wrote, had “copied the pro-war policy of the US”. He called for a discussion of “whether the continuation of this policy is rational in future”.
In response, Michel reprimanded Orbán, saying he had no mandate to engage in international talks on behalf of the EU. “I made this clear even prior to your visit to Moscow and this was subsequently reiterated by High Representative [Josep] Borrell,” Michel wrote, referring to the EU’s top diplomat.
Michel rejected Orbán’s claim that the EU had “a pro-war policy”, adding: “Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine is the victim exercising its legitimate right to self-defence.”
“No discussion about Ukraine can take place without Ukraine,” he added, repeating the widely held EU position.
The exchange of letters emerged after the European Commission took the unprecedented decision to boycott meetings organised by Budapest as part of Hungary’s EU presidency.
A spokesperson for the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Monday: “In light of recent developments marking the start of the Hungarian presidency the president has decided that @EU_Commission will be represented at senior civil servant level only during informal meetings of the council.”
That means neither von der Leyen, nor any of her team, including Borrell, will attend “informal” EU meetings in Hungary, although formal meetings in Brussels and Luxembourg are expected to continue with the usual attenders.
The unprecedented snub follows apparent decisions by some EU member states to send lower-level officials to EU events in Hungary.
The commission also cancelled a visit to Budapest from von der Leyen and her team of EU commissioners that was expected to have taken place in the first few days of July.
Soon after Hungary took over the rotating presidency of the EU council of ministers on 1 July, Orbán visited Kyiv, Moscow, Beijing, Azerbaijan and the US in a tour he described as a “peace mission” that has provoked deep anger among other EU leaders.
The EU presidency gives Orbán no formal role to speak for the EU. Other European leaders have sharply criticised the visits, in a near-unanimous chorus of disapproval. Slovakia, led by Orbán’s ally Robert Fico, was the only EU member state that did not speak out against him at a meeting of senior diplomats last week.
Responding to the leaked letter on X, the Hungarian prime minister’s political director, Balázs Orbán (who is unrelated), doubled down on the message bound to provoke Hungary’s EU partners. “Instead of copying the pro-war policy of the US, #Europe needs a sovereign and independent strategy with a focus on a ceasefire and the start of peace negotiations,” he wrote.
Separately, he offered congratulations to JD Vance, the hard-right Ohio senator who was selected as Trump’s running mate on Tuesday and is a leading opponent of aid to Ukraine. “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other,” Vance said on a podcast last year.
Balázs Orbán tweeted: “A Trump-Vance administration sounds just right,” accompanied by a strong-arm emoji.
In an interview with the pro-government daily Magyar Nemzet, Balázs Orbán claimed Trump was “committed to peace” and “will soon create peace himself” if he again became president of the US. “If Europe wants peace and wants to have a decisive say in the settlement of the war and an end to the bloodshed, it must now work out and implement a change of course,” he wrote.
And in a statement likely to deepen alarm in EU capitals, he added: “We are convinced that – in political terms – we should use the entire period of Hungary’s EU presidency to establish the right conditions for peace negotiations.”
