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A new European strategy on Ukraine will be needed after the Republican victory in the United States on Tuesday night, the Hungarian Prime Minister said in a speech at the Turkic Council on Wednesday.
Viktor Orbán said in his speech that the Republican victory in the United States “puts the question on the table for us European leaders” whether Europe alone will be able to maintain the current level of military and financial support for Ukraine.
There are serious doubts about this, and a new European strategy will be needed,” he said, adding that the first steps towards this could be taken on Thursday in Budapest at the summit of European leaders.
The most difficult issue to be addressed, he said, was the fate of the EUR 50 billion loan for Ukraine, which was decided earlier by the G7 and is to be jointly financed by the European Union and the United States.
In his speech, Viktor Orbán also highlighted that this year the Turkic Council states have made a greater contribution than ever to Hungary’s energy security: “Hungary has become the first non-neighboring country to which Türkiye has supplied natural gas, and the first gas supplies from Azerbaijan have also arrived in the country.”
Photo: Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the summit of the Organization of Turkic States (also called the Turkic Council) in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher
The Prime Minister noted that at the last summit, a decision was made to establish an Institute for Drought Prevention in the European headquarters of the Organization of Turkic States in Budapest, where experts will work together to find answers to environmental challenges. The institute has begun implementing its first major program, a Hungarian-Kyrgyz-Uzbek university collaboration to work on afforestation in the Fergana Valley.
Commenting on the current situation in Europe, he said that
two debates were currently dominating the European Union: one on the war that has been going on for almost a thousand days, and the other on Europe’s competitiveness, which is sinking ever deeper.
“As far as the European debate on war is concerned, there is still a massive pro-war majority in the European Union, even though all military experts believe that the European strategy has already been defeated on the battlefield,” he said. He continued that Hungary took over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union in July, “and I have launched a peace mission; I am grateful to (Turkish) President Erdogan for helping me.”
He added that
as the result, discussions have started in Europe on how to change the war strategy into a peace strategy.
Mr. Orbán also informed the participants that the new European Commission would be set up in a few days’ time; elections were held in June, and the new Commission would be in place by December 1. “I do not think we can expect any substantial change in Brussels’ attitude towards the Turkic world. I think we should continue to be prepared for a distanced approach. But I would urge the presidents to be as active as possible in our policy towards Brussels, to take all important issues there,” he said.
Via MTI, Featured image: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher