The Hungarian prime minister gave an exclusive interview to Tenyek en route to Albania, where he attended the European Political Community (EPC) summit. According to Orban, peace requires Donald Trump to negotiate with the Russian president, while Europe must decide whether to sit down with Vladimir Putin before or after that meeting.
Viktor Orban: We Need a Trump–Putin Meeting
The prime minister shared his views on the peace process and the espionage scandal, expressing his disappointment over the outbreak of the Russia–Ukraine war:
This is a war that should never have started. It would have been best if it had never broken out. But the international situation was such that President Trump was in opposition at the time,
Orban said in the Tenyek interview.
If Trump had been president of the U.S., this war would never have happened, regardless of what the Europeans had wanted. So we are disappointed and have been frustrated for almost three years now. And every day we wake up hoping that perhaps today—though yesterday wasn’t that day either.
He continued:
This won’t work. If anyone believes the Russians and Ukrainians will reach an agreement, they’re wrong. It’s not going to happen. The opportunity for it to happen was there every day in the past three years—but it never happened. I’ve negotiated with both sides separately. I saw the refusal firsthand. The only way peace will come is if President Trump continues his peace initiative. He’s already met with Zelensky; now it’s time for him to sit down with the Russian president. If he does, that will be a big step toward—or even reaching peace. Without that, it won’t happen.
Orban emphasized that the war is now the most pressing issue, and Europe must also negotiate with Putin. The question is whether this takes place before or after a Trump–Putin meeting:
Everyone sees that there’s really only one major issue on the agenda. Of course, there are sub-points, but the central issue is this war. Europe faces a serious political decision. Sooner or later, it’s inevitable that we Europeans must negotiate with President Putin. The question we have to answer is: do we want to negotiate before the Trump–Putin meeting, or only afterward? But this is inevitable,
the Hungarian PM stated, noting that some European leaders are in denial about this fact.
Today, some European leaders don’t see this. They think it can be avoided. They refuse to negotiate, believe Europe shouldn’t talk to Russia, and that peace will come from a Russian–Ukrainian agreement. But that’s an illusion. We must negotiate with the Russian president—the Americans have to and so do we. Now we have to discuss whether we accept this, and if so, whether we want to talk to the Russians before or after the Americans. There aren’t many of us who openly take this stance - the Slovaks tend to speak this way. Central Europeans are generally more rational, but also more cautious. The spotlight is on the big guys—the leaders of the major powers. The Germans and the French need to step up.
On the Ukrainian spy scandal, Orban said,
