Asked by state news agency MTI why PM Orbán was not attending the Kyiv meeting, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said that “we solely represent Hungary’s interests and our objective cannot be anything else but to ensure that Hungary stays out of this war”.
He said the reason why the Hungarian prime minister was not travelling with his Czech, Polish and Slovenian counterparts to Kyiv was that “to ensure the peace and security of Hungary it is necessary that the country should not send troops or weapons to the war and neither should it allow the transit of weapons across its territory to Ukraine”.
“We will respect it if other countries decide differently, but we must bear Hungary’s security interests in mind”, Szijjarto said.
When Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s press chief was asked by media outlets critical of the government why Orbán is not attending the Kyiv meeting, he responded that “The Prime Minister is aware of the visit, but is not going to Kyiv.”
Hvg.hu asked the Polish government’s press office, which also said that “The decision whether to attend this visit in person was left to the choice of each European leader.”
Pro-Fidesz site Origo wrote that the reason why Prime Minister Viktor Orbán did not go to Kyiv for talks because Hungary is not supplying weapons to Ukraine, and according to the portal’s information, the details of supplying arms to Ukraine were on the agenda in Kyiv.
Featured photo by Lajos Soós/MTI
