‘He’s going to solve it’: The curious case of Orban meeting Trump after Nato Summit

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is on a self-declared peace mission — a series of foreign trips that have upset several nations of the European Union, whose presidency Hungary assumed this month. After visiting Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Beijing to call on Xi Jinping, Orban met former US President Donald Trump, who is running for the American presidential election again.

Orban travelled to Florida after the Nato Summit ended in Washington to meet Trump at his Mar-a-Lago property on Thursday. What they discussed was not made official but media reports quoting sources have said that Russia’s war with Ukraine was very much on their agenda.

Orban endorsing Trump as US president?

Right-wing Orban, whose country took over the rotating presidency of the European Union this month, has been a vocal supporter of Trump, and last met the 2024 Republican presidential hopeful in March.

In a cryptic post, Orban said, “We discussed ways to make peace.” Orban announced this with a picture of him with Trump, declaring, “The good news of the day: he’s going to solve it!” The post did not elaborate further.

Orban took over the six-month presidency of the European Union’s Council of Ministers on July 1. Since then, he has met with Putin and Xi Jinping as part of what he calls “peace mission”— meetings that have angered his fellow Nato members.

An extension of Russia’s foreign policy?

Orban sparked uproar in the EU by jetting to Moscow to hold talks with Putin on what the Hungarian leader described as a “peace mission” over the war in Ukraine.

His Russia visit followed a trip to Kyiv for talks with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The 27-nation EU bloc has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and imposed unprecedented sanctions on Moscow.

Foreign Policy quoted Peter Krekó, a nonresident senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis as saying, “Hungary is the extension of Russian foreign policy. At the moment, Orban is Putin’s most useful idiot.”

Who all are angry with Orban’s visits

“Viktor Orban has no mandate from the alliance, nor from the European Union, to conduct any form of negotiations,” Finnish President Alexander Stubb said at the NATO summit.

“He can do it on his own behalf. But I fundamentally disagree about doing that. I simply do not see the purpose."

Speaking to reporters Thursday, US President Joe Biden, set to face Trump in November, said that “I have no good reason to talk to Putin right now — there’s not much that he is prepared to do in terms of accommodating any change in his behaviour."

How it impacts Nato

Orban’s meeting with Trump came a day after the US presidential hopeful said he would not pull the United States out of the alliance. But Trump reiterated that he wants other Nato nations to pay more.  

Politico has reported that Trump is considering reducing the United States’ intelligence-sharing with Nato members if he is reelected in November.

Orban, like Trump, has expressed scepticism about the role Nato countries are playing in support of Ukraine, and refuses to send Kyiv weapons saying it would fuel the conflict.

His meeting with Trump, who has been critical of the central role played by the United States in Nato, came after Biden sought to rally the alliance at the Washington summit.

The president was also seeking to reassure Nato counterparts — and US voters — about his leadership and fitness for office in the wake of a disastrous performance against Trump in a televised debate last month rekindled concerns about his age. Biden is 81, Trump 78.

(With inputs from agencies)