The Hungarian autocrat has popped up in in Kyiv, Moscow, and Beijing just as his country takes over the presidency of the Council of the EU. But to what end?
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00:00Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban has arrived in Beijing on Monday in a surprise visit.
00:12His trip follows an unexpected visit to Russia last week, where he proposed that Ukraine
00:16should consider agreeing to an immediate ceasefire with Russia.
00:23Diplomatic sources say that Orban has caused concerns over deliberately displaying the
00:27logo of the EU rotating presidency in his communications, instead of making it clear
00:33that he is representing his own country.
00:40The Hungarian Prime Minister is widely seen as having a close relationship with Russian
00:44President Vladimir Putin.
00:49What we see is a strategic campaign to ridicule the European Union and to demonstrate that
00:56actually Prime Minister Orban can go on with all of these uncoordinated steps, which are
01:01clear violations of joint and agreed EU positions, and does not need to fear any negative consequences.
01:10Because he knows that with this, on the one hand, he also expands his future space to
01:19manoeuvre and future political autonomy, but also that seriously undermines the perception
01:26of the EU foreign policy among key partners.
01:35Experts say that despite Orban's efforts, they are unlikely to have any tangible impact
01:40on a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
01:45I think Prime Minister Orban is the only European head of state or government who is
01:50ready to talk to Mr Putin and actually violate the basic principle jointly established by
01:56EU member states, that there is no talk about Ukraine without Ukraine.
02:01So it's not the ability, it's just the readiness.
02:04I don't see any positive contribution of this sort of travelling diplomacy to the solution
02:12of the war in Ukraine, because that would require the involvement of all partners.
02:24European ambassadors will discuss Orban's recent visits in a meeting on Wednesday.