Isn’t It Bromantic? Putin, in Rare Rendezvous With EU Leader, Woos Victor Orban

As European leaders are bending over backward to admonish Israel during its battle with Hamas, at least one is skipping town, so to speak, altogether — Prime Minister Orbán. On Tuesday the blusterer from Budapest held talks with a longtime comrade, Vladimir Putin, at, of all places, Beijing. It was a rare in-person rendezvous for the Russian president with a leader of a European Union country.Although President Putin had some infamously pointless phone chats with President Macron soon after Russia invaded Ukraine, and met met face-to-face with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer in April 2022 — around two months after the start of the war — the Kremlin will likely tick the Orbán rendezvous off as a publicity win.Certainly Mr. Orbán’s meeting with Mr. Putin appeared to be a boon for the Russian president, who could point to it as a sign that unity within the EU on its support for Ukraine — and its condemnation of Russia for starting the war — is faltering.Messrs. Orbán and Putin met at Beijing before an international forum on one of President Xi’s signature policies, the Belt and Road Initiative. Their meeting focused on Hungary’s access to Russian energy.EU and other Western leaders have largely eschewed contact with Mr. Putin over Russia’s war with Ukraine, which that began in February 2022.“Hungary never wanted to confront Russia. Hungary always has been eager to expand contacts,” Mr. Orbán told the ravenous Russ, according to a Russian translation of his remarks broadcast on Russian state television. Bilateral ties between the two countries have suffered because of EU sanctions against Moscow, he said.Hungary’s stance on the war has confounded its European partners and led to deadlocks in providing financial and military assistance to Kyiv. Mr. Orbán has refused to supply Ukraine with weapons and has refused to allow their transfer across the Hungarian-Ukrainian border. He has also threatened to veto EU sanctions against Moscow, though, so far, has ultimately voted in favor of them.Mr. Putin said that while opportunities for maintaining ties with some countries are “limited in the current geopolitical situation, it causes satisfaction that we have managed to preserve and develop relations with many European countries, including Hungary.”Since May, Budapest has been blocking an EU military aid package to Kyiv valued at $526 million. Hungary has said that it would continue doing so until it receives concessions from Kyiv concerning its listing of a Hungarian bank as an international sponsor of the war.Mr. Orbán, a conservative leader who has repeatedly criticized Western sanctions against Russia, said that his country has remained eager to maintain ties with Moscow, on which Hungary is highly dependent for natural gas, oil and nuclear fuel.While most of Hungary’s neighbors in Central and Eastern Europe have taken great strides to wean themselves off Russian energy, Mr. Orbán has worked to maintain and even increase supplies of Russian gas and oil. The Hungarian argues that they are essential for the functioning of Hungary’s economy.“We are doing what we can and trying to save what we can in our bilateral contacts,” he said, noting the planned expansion of Hungary’s only nuclear power plant by the Russian state nuclear energy corporation, Rosatom. The project will be financed with a $10.5 billion loan from a Russian state bank.In a post on Mr. Orbán’s Facebook page, the Hungarian premier reiterated his longstanding call for a cease-fire and immediate peace talks in Ukraine. He has yet to indicate what such an arrangement would mean for Ukraine’s future security or territorial integrity.“In Europe today, one question is on everyone’s mind: will there be a cease-fire in Ukraine,” he writes. “For us Hungarians, too, the most important thing is that the flood of refugees, the sanctions and the fighting in our neighboring country should end.”Mr. Putin, making a rare trip out of Russia, is holding a series of meetings with other leaders who have come to Beijing for the Belt and Road Forum, and will also hold talks with Mr. Xi. The Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, said Tuesday that he had had a short meeting with Putin, one that is also likely to raise concerns in Europe. Under Mr. Vučić, Serbia has been increasingly drifting away from its proclaimed goal of joining the EU and is moving closer to Russia and Communist China economically and politically.Serbia has refused to join EU sanctions against Moscow, although Mr. Vučić says Serbia respects the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Both Moscow and Beijing are the main suppliers of weapons for the Serbian army at a time when growing tensions over its former province of Kosovo is one of the main Western security concerns for regional stability.Communist China has provided Serbia with billions of dollars in loans for factories and highways that Chinese companies are building. A free trade agreement signed with Beijing on Tuesday contravenes EU economic policies and would have to be scrapped if Serbia were to join the EU.

Isn’t It Bromantic? Putin, in Rare Rendezvous With EU Leader, Woos Victor Orban

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