Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán warned on the sidelines of the NATO summit yesterday that NATO’s role in the Ukraine conflict is increasing, which is perilous and even irresponsible. “NATO was established 75 years ago with the goal of protecting the security of its members. Today, however, it seems to be moving away from its original purpose, behaving more and more like a war organization. One of the signs of this is that NATO is taking an increasingly active role in the Russian-Ukrainian war. In our opinion, this is dangerous and even irresponsible, because no one can see how this will end or where we will end up,” he said in a video posted on his X profile. Orbán said he “will argue that NATO should return to its original spirit.” He added that the Alliance “should not win the wars going on around it, but the peace.” Orbán reiterated that Hungary would not participate in the NATO-Ukraine mission, but would fully comply with its obligations to the allies.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto argued that it is not NATO’s job to provide military aid to Ukraine and that the attempts of the Alliance’s leadership to translate this into an indicator of loyalty towards allies is simply hypocrisy. “However, Ukraine is not a NATO member, and NATO security does not depend on how strong Ukraine is, but on how strong we are,” the Foreign Minister said in an interview with the Hungarian television channel M1, reported TASS, recalling that so far, only 22 of 32 member countries spend the required 2% of their GDP on defense, whereas the rest do not comply with this commitment.
