Hungarian minister: Supporting Ukraine is not a strategy

The European Union is not a war project, the minister for European Union affairs, János Bóka, said on Facebook on Friday.

Commenting on an opinion piece by Mujtaba Rahman in the Financial Times, Bóka rejected the author’s position that “the EU must face down Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to protect Ukraine.”

Noting that his letter was published on the FT website, Bóka said that Rahman was proposing to use “financial blackmail” to achieve that end, “or, if this approach fails, through the suspension of Hungary’s voting rights in the EU.”

“I fundamentally disagree with the author’s conclusions and his perception of the EU on which his conclusions are founded,” Bóka said.

“Admittedly, the EU is divided over a feasible strategy concerning the war in Ukraine. Currently, it doesn’t have one because supporting and arming Ukraine as long as it takes is not a strategy; it is a formulation used to cover up its absence.”

The Trump administration’s peace efforts aimed at embedding “this process in a normalisation of relations with Russia” create a new political context for the EU, Bóka said. “It is only natural that there is a political discussion on how to redefine our interests and objectives.”

Hungary’s “clear” position, he said, was that the conflict must be localised, de-escalated and ended. Meanwhile, the EU must start “a discussion on a new European security architecture with all global stakeholders; develop individual and collective capabilities for EU member states to be able to defend themselves; and create the necessary economic background by making the EU more competitive.”