NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated on Friday that Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban has notified the alliance in advance of his planned journey to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Of course, Viktor Orban is not representing NATO at these meetings. He’s representing his own country,” Stoltenberg said.
“Hungary agrees that Russia is responsible for the war. Russia is the perpetrator, and Russia can end this war today by stopping attacking Ukraine,” he added.
By traveling to Moscow on Friday to hold discussions with Putin, with whom he has long established cordial connections, Orban rattled allies in the EU and NATO.
Although EU leaders emphasized that Orban was operating on his own initiative in a strictly bilateral role with no authority to speak for the bloc, Putin stated he saw Orban as a representative for Europe.
At a NATO summit in Washington next week, Stoltenberg stated he anticipated that Orban will have “opportunities to discuss” the topics that came up in his conversation with Putin.
NATO is not directly assisting Ukraine in defending itself against Russia’s full-scale invasion, but the majority of its member nations are offering Kyiv diplomatic, military, and financial support.
Hungary has not provided military support, but after weeks of opposition, it eventually agreed to support its partners’ activities, if grudgingly at times.
