EU chief rebukes Hungary’s Orban over ‘peace mission’ with Trump talks

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By Andrew Gray and Jan Strupczewski

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -A top European Union official rebuked Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Tuesday after he launched a self-styled Ukraine “peace mission” that included talks with Donald Trump and the leaders of Russia and China without EU backing.

Orban told fellow leaders of the 27-nation bloc in a letter that Trump, the U.S. Republican presidential candidate, is ready to act “immediately” as a peace broker in the Russia-Ukraine war if he is elected in November.

Many European officials fear Trump could cut U.S. support for Kyiv and push Ukraine into peace talks that would give Moscow a substantial slice of Ukraine and embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin to pursue further military adventures.

Hungary – which has maintained close ties to Russia since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine – took on the EU’s rotating six-month presidency at the start of this month.

But in a reply to Orban’s letter, Charles Michel, the chair of the European Council of the EU’s national leaders, told the Hungarian premier he had no EU mandate for talks on the war.

“The rotating Presidency of the Council has no role in representing the Union on the international stage and received no European Council mandate to engage on behalf of the Union,” Michel told Orban in a letter seen by Reuters.

Michel, a former Belgian prime minister, also rejected Orban’s assertion that the EU had pursued a “pro-war” policy in Ukraine.

“It is quite the opposite,” Michel wrote. “Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine is the victim exercising its legitimate right to self-defence.”

Nationalist leader Orban, a long-time Trump supporter, followed a trip to Kyiv with surprise visits to Moscow and Beijing before attending a NATO summit in Washington last week and holding talks with Trump in Florida.

In his letter, Orban said Trump, in the event of his victory in the U.S. election in November, would not wait until his inauguration but would “be ready to act as a peace broker immediately. He has detailed and well-founded plans for this”.

EU FURY

Orban’s actions have sparked fury among many EU governments and officials.

The European Commission on Monday took the unprecedented step of barring EU Commissioners from attending meetings held in Hungary under the country’s EU presidency.

Some EU governments also plan to send only top civil servants, rather than government ministers, to ministerial meetings in Hungary and 63 European Parliament lawmakers have asked the EU to suspend Budapest’s voting rights in the bloc.

In his letter, Orban also said that U.S. President Joe Biden was “not capable of modifying the current U.S. pro-war policy”.

Orban has long criticised European military support for Ukraine, in contrast to most EU members which have provided large amounts of military aid for Kyiv’s war effort.

He said a Trump victory would change the burden between the United States and the EU when it comes to financial support for Ukraine, to the disadvantage of the Europeans.

“Our European strategy in the name of transatlantic unity has copied the pro-war policy of the U.S. We have not had a sovereign and independent European strategy or political action plan up to now,” he said.

Orban suggested “reopening direct lines of diplomatic communication with Russia” while maintaining high-level contacts with Kyiv as well as conducting talks with China “on the modalities of the next peace conference”.

In his reply, Michel said “no discussion about Ukraine can take place without Ukraine” and said the EU had “consistently sought to build broad international support for a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace”.

“The Union has spared no effort to reach out to all partners in this regard, including China,” Michel added.

(Reporting by ReutersEditing by Keith Weir, Angus MacSwan and Gareth Jones)