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EU countries reprimand Hungary for PM’s visits to Russia, China

Several EU ambassadors warned of "practical consequences" for Hungary if Orban continued to pursue his current path

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban

© AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File

BRUSSELS, July 11. /TASS/. Budapest has been reprimanded by other European Union nations for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s visits to Moscow and Beijing following the country’s takeover of the Presidency of the Council of the EU, Politico writes.

"It’s unprecedented that the presidency would be reprimanded in such a way by all the others," the media outlet cited a senior EU diplomat as saying. Another source said that "it took nine days for the Hungarian presidency to lose any smidgen of trust they had left." In his view, Orban’s "actions are not serving the EU or peace."

Several EU ambassadors warned of "practical consequences" for Hungary if Orban continued to pursue his current path. "Changing the order of the presidencies or shortening Hungary’s six-month turn at the helm of the EU might have been options at one point, but are now legally fraught as the presidency is underway," Politico writes, citing an EU official. Another diplomat said that the EU in fact showed "a yellow card" to Hungary at the July 10 meeting of the Permanent Representatives Committee.

The Euractiv news website reported earlier that EU member states had not presented any specific measures to end Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the EU due to Orban’s trips to Russia and China. According to Euractiv, despite "wide dissatisfaction" with Budapest’s actions, the only decision that some EU nations made was to send "more junior officials than expected to informal meetings organized by the Hungarians."

Orban visited Moscow on July 5 to discuss ways to resolve the conflict in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Earlier, on July 2, the Hungarian premier made a trip to Kiev where he held a meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. On July 8, Orban met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing to exchange views on the prospects for resolving the Ukraine crisis.

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