Hungarian officials ignored an invitation to a meeting of NATO ambassadors and military attaches to discuss Hungary’s policy “to foster ties with Russia and China,” Politico reports. The summit took place on Wednesday, October 30 in Budapest.
“Hungary’s recently announced economic ‘neutrality’ policy and its growing dependence on Moscow and Beijing have implications for US security and Euro-Atlantic interests.” – the US ambassador in Budapest told reporters David Pressman after the event.
A NATO diplomat said Hungary’s latest actions and rhetoric were “seriously worrying.” The meeting “would have been a useful opportunity for Hungary to explain itself to its allies, but its representatives were absent from the discussions,” he said.
In this context, the newspaper writes, the disappointment of NATO allies is “reaching a boiling point” while Budapest “continues to flirt with Russia.” There is growing concern within the alliance that Victor Orbán can turn the country into an “unreliable partner.”
Despite this, Hungary participates in intelligence sharing and talks with other members of the bloc.
“Basically, each ally has full access to all NATO documents, including classified ones.” – noted the former deputy secretary general of the alliance Camille Grand.
According to him, if Hungary at some point “expresses sympathy for Russia’s views,” discussing this data will be problematic, but so far this has not happened.
Orbán promotes the concept of economic neutrality, including a “departure from the traditional Western course.”
“We must maintain our relations in East and West” – he said in September.
This has caused difficulties in Hungary’s relations with other NATO and EU countries, which advocate assistance to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia, the publication notes. Hungary is blocking EU plans for military support to kyiv and making it difficult to use profits from blocked Russian assets for these purposes. This summer Hungary refused to participate in the NATO mission in Ukraine.
According to a NATO official, despite differences on a number of key issues, Hungary continues to support the activities of the North Atlantic Alliance, RBC clarifies.
