Hungary’s
Orban will visit Trump in Florida after Nato summit in Washington
Expected
meeting on Thursday would come days after the Hungarian leader met with Xi
Jinping and Vladimir Putin
Published:
12:39pm, 11 Jul 2024
Former US
president Donald Trump will meet with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in
Florida on Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter, less than a
week after he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
The visit is
likely to fan concerns that the Hungarian leader is working as an intermediary
between Putin and Trump.
Trump and
Putin professed a fondness for one another during the US president’s first term
– often garnering bipartisan criticism.
More
recently, the Republican leader has said he believed he could convince Putin to
end his war in Ukraine and release Americans detained in Russia if he were
elected to a second term.
Orban will
travel to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort after the conclusion of the Nato summit in
Washington.
His visit to
Moscow became a central point of discussion at the gathering, where other
allies pledged additional air defences for Ukraine in its continuing campaign
against the full-scale Russian invasion that began in 2022.
Trump, the
presumptive Republican nominee, has not asked the Hungarian leader to lay the
groundwork for some sort of Ukraine-Russia peace deal, according to one of the
people familiar with the Orban visit, who was granted anonymity to discuss it.
The person
described the visit, which will take place days before the Republican National
Convention in Milwaukee, as more of an informal get-together.
Orban also
paid a visit this week to President Xi Jinping in China, following a trip to
Azerbaijan earlier this month.
Trump
campaign spokespeople didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Spokespeople for the Hungarian government didn’t immediately comment.
Hungary took
over the European Union’s rotating presidency July 1. EU officials have
criticised Orban’s travels, arguing they could undermine the 27-member bloc’s
positions on global issues.
Nato
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told CBS News’s Face the Nation on Sunday
that Orban “made it clear when he came to Moscow that he didn’t go there on
behalf of Nato.”
“Different
Nato allies interact with Moscow in different ways,” he added.
The
Hungarian leader and Trump have cultivated a close relationship, with Orban
visiting Mar-a-Lago in March.
Trump feted
him with a tour of his residence, dinner with former first Lady Melania Trump,
an hour-long meeting with senior aides, and musical performance by a band
covering Roy Orbison songs.
US President
Joe Biden seized on that meeting at a subsequent political rally in
Philadelphia, saying Orban “doesn’t think democracy works” and was “looking for
dictatorship”.
The Biden
administration has criticised Orban over his friendly relations with Putin, as
well as legislation in Hungary that the State Department warned could
“intimidate and punish” critics of Orban’s government.
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