Orbán: Hungary can be a mediator and a venue for ceasefire negotiations

Hungary is “on the side of peace” and will support any peace plan, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in Bled on Thursday, adding that “we do not know which [plan] will succeed, but unless we take the first step we will never achieve peace.”

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a meeting of leaders of the Centrist Democrat International, Orbán said some saw an opportunity for a militarist settlement of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, while others saw no such opportunity and called for a ceasefire and peace talks. “The real nature of the conflict has not yet been revealed; some consider it a proxy war, and others talk about a real war between the parties,” Orbán said. Hungary will support all initiatives as nobody knows which peace plan will turn out to be successful, he added. It is not known which peace plan has a chance of succeeding, so Hungary backs all initiatives and is prepared to aid the process either as a mediator or as a venue for ceasefire negotiations, he said.

Orbán said Hungary’s stake in the war set it apart from countries in the region given the Hungarian minority living there and the Hungarian lives sacrificed, a “personal national loss” for Ukraine and Hungary alike. Explaining why Hungary has blocked further payments from the European Peace Framework fund, Orbán said the funds had been designated for European security, not for the war in Ukraine, with a view to boosting security throughout Europe. Most of the funds are being used to support Ukraine, he said, adding that Hungary wants to clarify whether the fund serves its original purpose or whether it is being channelled to supporting Ukraine. The Centrist Democrat International’s meeting is being held under the motto “Security, Justice, Peace”, and Orbán is participating as one of its vice-presidents.

Here are some photos of the summit:

Hungary’s House Speaker hails Hungary, Slovenia’s ‘exemplary’ minority rights

The “shared success story” of how Hungary and Slovenia guarantee the rights of minority citizens in each other’s countries can set an example for European Union institutions and the entire world, Speaker of Parliament László Kövér said after meeting his Slovenian counterpart on Thursday. Kövér and Urska Klakocar Zupancic met representatives of Slovenia’s Hungarian and Hungary’s Slovene minority communities in Szetgotthard, in western Hungary, and attended an event marking the 30th anniversary of the Hungarian-Slovenian bilateral agreement on minority rights.

Addressing the event, Kövér said the agreement served as an effective means of strengthening ethnic peace, national fairness and political stability. He said these values were especially important given how unresolved issues around national minorities always resulted in ethnic conflict and political instability, and could eventually lead to local or world wars, and he cited the Yugoslav Wars and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war as examples. The bilateral agreement was in many ways ahead of its time and could serve as a model for the development of a minority protection regime at EU level, which the bloc’s nearly 50 million minority-status voters have been wanting for years, the speaker said.

He said the unique aspect of the Hungarian-Slovenian agreement was that identified the national community as the subject of special protection. It defines the individual rights of minorities in the areas of culture, education, language use, media, political participation, contact with the mother nation, and recognises collective minority rights, Kövér said. Also, under the agreement, both countries made a commitment to take into consideration the special interests of local minorities when it comes economic and regional development plans and ensure their economic and social development, Kövér said. Hungary and Slovenia also vowed not to the public administrative bodies of local councils to the detriment of minorities, he added. Klakocar Zupancic said both Slovenia and Hungary continued to treat minority rights as a top priority, adding that national minorities in the two countries would continue to embody cooperation and respect.