BUDAPEST, July 15. /TASS/. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is set to continue his peacekeeping mission for settling the conflict in Ukraine and plans more foreign trips and talks, his political adviser Balazs Orban (no relation) said.
"We plan more visits and talks. We are in the intensive efforts now," he said in an interview with the Magyar Nemzet newspaper.
According to the adviser, Hungary wants to use its presidency of the EU Council in the second half of the year "to create conditions for peace talks" on Ukraine. "If the European Union doesn't do something quick, chances are it will never achieve anything at all," he stressed.
During his ten-day peacekeeping mission earlier in July, the Hungarian prime minister visited Kiev on July 2 and held talks with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. Three days later, he went to Moscow to speak with the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin. After that, he paid a visit to Beijing, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Washington, where he held talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the NATO summit. Moreover, after the summit, he visited former US President Donald Trump at his Florida residence. Ways of settling the Ukrainian conflict were among the topics the two discussed.
Mediatory efforts
When asked whether Hungary can play a mediatory role in the Ukrainian settlement, Balazs Orban said, "We should neither overestimate nor underestimate our role." "We know what our country can do and what it cannot. But since the first day of the conflict, we have been real advocates of peace, being the only ones who can maintain dialogue will all sides," he said.
He noted that the very fact that Viktor Orban held talks in Kiev, Moscow, Beijing, Washington, and Florida in less than two weeks demonstrates that "Hungary can play an important mediatory role."
Experience is what matters in politics," the adviser said, describing his country’s prime minister as "the dean of European politics with extensive personal ties opening up to him lots of doors which would have never been opened to others." "The recent two weeks showed that Hungary is a right mediator and now our task is to elaborate a new approach and try to persuade European Union countries that Viktor Orban’s plan is necessary," he stressed.
He also said that Hungary has shared with other EU countries its settlement proposals drawn after prime minister’s recent visits. At the same time, he admitted that only the world’s leading centers of power, such as the United States, the European Union, China, and, probably, Turkey can have a decisive role in mediatory efforts.