BUDAPEST – Hungary’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, expressed indifference on Tuesday regarding the decision by the European Union’s top diplomat to move an EU ministers’ meeting from Budapest to Brussels. This move came as a sign of disapproval over Hungary’s initial handling of its EU presidency.
“It was all the same to me in the beginning, and it’s all the same to me now,” Szijjarto stated.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell decided to relocate the meeting after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban began an unsanctioned Ukraine peace mission, which included talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Orban’s actions were not coordinated with other EU government leaders or Ukraine, sparking discontent within the bloc.
Orban, known for his nationalist stance and frequent clashes with broader EU policies, launched his diplomatic efforts just days after Hungary assumed the EU’s rotating presidency on July 1.
“We have to send a signal, even if it is a symbolic signal,” Borrell told reporters in Brussels on Monday after the last meeting of EU foreign ministers before the summer break.
Borrell noted the lack of consensus among EU members on whether to attend the ministerial meeting in Budapest, originally planned for August 28-29, along with a subsequent gathering of defense ministers. He decided to switch both meetings to Brussels after a majority of countries expressed the need to send a message to Hungary regarding Orban’s outreach to Russia, which remains under EU sanctions due to its 2-1/2-year invasion of Ukraine.