Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday that preparations are underway in Brussels for working groups on how NATO could participate in the Russian-Ukrainian war.
There are some alarming similarities between the present and the period when preparations were being made for the First and Second World Wars, Orban explained.
“What is happening today in Brussels and Washington, or currently more in Brussels than in Washington, creates the mood for a possible military conflict, which we could describe as a preparation for Europe’s entry into the war,” he said.
Regarding Hungary’s situation in that context, Orban said that Hungary, as a member of NATO, has representatives in those groups, “but we do not want to participate in the conflict, either by financial contribution or by sending weapons, even within NATO”.
“In the history of NATO, there has never really been a situation when a member state would so openly and clearly adhere to the fundamental principles of NATO as Hungary is doing now,” Orban told public radio, adding that Hungary must therefore “redefine its position within military alliance”.
He added that fears that Russia will attack a NATO member are unfounded, adding that the war in Ukraine, which has been going on for three years now, has shown the limits of Russia’s capabilities.
“The Russian army is waging a serious and difficult war with the Ukrainians,” Orban said in an interview with public radio. “If the Russians were strong enough to defeat the Ukrainians in one move, they would have done it already.”
Orban said that NATO’s military capabilities far exceed those of Ukraine, so it is unlikely that Russia or any other country will attack NATO.
“I do not consider it logical that Russia, which cannot even defeat Ukraine, suddenly comes and swallows the entire Western world,” said Orban. “The chances of that happening are extremely low.”
Orban said he considered the mention of the Russian threat to be a prelude to deeper Western involvement in the Ukrainian war.
Hungary, a member of the European Union (EU) and NATO refuses to provide military assistance to Ukraine in defense against the Russian invasion that began in February 2022.
Budapest also wants to pull out of NATO’s long-term plan to help Ukraine, with its foreign minister calling it a “crazy mission”.
The nationalist Orban, in power since 2010, has built his campaign for next month’s European Parliament elections on avoiding deeper entanglement in the conflict and messages that the vote could determine the course of war and peace in Europe.
“We Hungarians believe that these upcoming elections will be about war and peace, and of course also about migration and the protection of traditional families, but the issue of war is now ahead of all other important issues,” Orban said.
Relations between Budapest and Washington have been strained by Hungary’s delay in ratifying Sweden’s accession to NATO, as well as by Orban’s close ties to Moscow despite the war in Ukraine.
