Orbán: ‘Hungary Dragged Into War’
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Hungary’s nationalist prime minister has accused the United States and the European Union of dragging his nation into war.
Viktor Orbán also warned that Moscow is furious about missiles being placed by NATO in several Eastern European nations and the likely future expansion of the military alliance into Ukraine and Georgia.
However, Orbán said Hungary’s leadership was strong enough to keep the country out of the armed conflict in neighboring Ukraine, which Russia invaded. “We are under constant pressure. They want to drag us into the war by every possible means,” Orbán told the Swiss daily Weltwoche. “So far, we have managed to resist … Hungary’s political leadership is strong enough to keep our homeland out of the war,” he stressed in comments monitored by Worthy News on Friday.
“The decisions made in Brussels [regarding Ukraine] mirror American interests more often than European ones,” Orbán said. This war “cannot be won,” he added. “Ukraine is facing a nuclear power with 140 million inhabitants. Russia is facing the entire NATO … this is a stalemate, which could easily devolve into a world war.”
Orbán cited President Vladimir Putin saying at their last meeting before the war started that “he had no problem with Hungary’s NATO membership, only with that of Ukraine and Georgia…”
The prime minister has been criticized over his perceived cozy relationship with Putin, but Orbán countered that Hungary is heavily dependent on Russian energy supplies.
He also complained that Western sanctions had increased the price of oil and natural gas. Orbán noted that the costs of meeting the growing energy needs of Hungary’s industry rose from 7 billion euros ($7.4 billion) in 2021 to 17 billion euros ($18 billion) in 2022.
NO MISSILE BASES?
Orbán told Weltwoche that Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his concerns about “the American missile bases in Poland and Romania and a possible NATO expansion in Ukraine and Georgia to station weapons there.” “The Americans also withdrew from important disarmament agreements,” Orbán said, without mentioning the withdrawal of Russia from the last remaining U.S.-Russia nuclear disarmament accord known as the New START Treaty.
“I understand what Putin said. I do not accept what he did,” he added.
On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that Moscow’s suspension over the treaty “was an irresponsible decision.”
Orbán suggested, however, that European and Western political norms did not work in Russia, and Europe had to find a way to live together with a “large, dangerous power in our neighborhood.”
On the possibility of Russia losing the war, Orbán said: “Russia is a nuclear power. It would be a geopolitical shock, a global, potentially disastrous earthquake, much worse than the collapse of the former Yugoslavia. “
He explained that “the fact that the West takes that scenario so lightly shows a frightening blindness towards the risks inherent in our policies.”
Orbán said that Europe should be able to defend itself. “The solution would be a European NATO,” he said. While the West lacks the will to broker peace, China, India, the Arab countries, Turkey, and Brazil want just that, Orbán said. “The West has lost its ability to unite the world behind a cause.”
Hungary is “showing an alternative should our friends and allies decide to give up their pro-war stance,” he said.
LOVING TRUMP
Orbán insisted that the war could have been avoided had former President Donald Trump, his close ally, still been in power.
He called Trump “a hope for peace … who could probably broker peace within weeks.”
He complained that the Biden administration and others of “the Democrat leadership” do not recognize Hungary as “a successful country and the protector of the defenses on the continent’s edge. So we are looking forward to our Republican friends gaining power again,” Orbán added about presidential elections.
The prime minister said the “global realignment preached by the apostles of the Davos World Economic Forum” was very dangerous for Hungary. Orbán called Hungary, rooted in Christianity, “an export-oriented country with important cultural and economic ties with the East.”
If you are interested in articles produced by Worthy News, please check out our FREE sydication service available to churches or online Christian ministries. To find out more, visit Worthy Plugins.