Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was active in his self-described peace mission yesterday at the European Political Community summit at Blenheim Palace, involving many heads of state among the 40-plus attendee nations and organizations. Yesterday Orbán sent out a message via X on the event, including a short video showing him with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and others. Orbán’s text stated, “Thousands and thousands are dying on the battlefield every day. We will find no #peace on the battlefield, but only at the negotiating table. My goal is to convince European leaders to make a shift to a pro-peace policy.” Timed for the Blenheim Palace gathering, Orbán’s office released the full text of his July 12 letter to the EU leadership. “As fragments of my report to #EUCO President @CharlesMichel
on my #peacemission have surfaced, I decided to release the whole document for the sake of clarity and context,” Orbán wrote. The link to the full text of the letter is posted in his tweet.
The text of the letter seems to largely confirm what has already been reported about it through media leaks. While “maintaining the current high-level political contacts with Ukraine, reopening direct lines of diplomatic communication with Russia and the rehabilitation of such direct contacts in our political communication,” Orbán wrote. He considers the EU’s policy on Ukraine has resulted in the “global isolation of the transatlantic community” and loss of appreciation from the Global South. Besides the Global South, Orbán also commented on China which, he says, “will continue its policy also formulated in international documents calling for a ceasefire and peace talks. However, China will play a more active role only if the chance for success of its engagement is close to certain. In their evaluation this is not the case at the moment.”
“It is obvious that he [Biden] is not capable of modifying the current U.S. pro-war policy and therefore cannot be expected to start a new policy,” Orbán said. The EU “has copied” that pro-war policy of the U.S. so far, but it can find a “window of opportunity” to begin a new chapter that can lead to creating “the conditions for a temporary ceasefire and/or start peace negotiations.”
Orbán proposed opening discussion on three proposals:
“a. the initiative to conduct high-level political talks with China on the modalities of the next peace conference;
“b. while maintaining the current high-level political contacts with Ukraine, reopening direct lines of diplomatic communication with Russia and the rehabilitation of such direct contacts in our political communication;
“c. the launch of a coordinated political offensive towards the Global South whose appreciation we have lost concerning our position on the war in Ukraine resulting in the global isolation of the transatlantic community.”
Orbán also included a 43-second video statement on his intention to continue his peace mission at the European summit, saying in English: “I think that there is no solution of this conflict on the battlefield. They hope so, but I don’t. I don’t believe it at all. So, because I know the Russians. I know the Soviet Union. I know the Ukrainians. I belong to a neighboring country. I know the whole context. It’s impossible to find a solution on the battlefield. We will lose every day thousands of innocent people. So to lose the human lives is the most precious thing we can lose and we do it every day, thousands and thousands. We have to stop it.
“As a neighboring country this is my opinion. Solution is not on the battlefield. The solution is at the negotiation table, ceasefire, negotiation table. That’s what I try to convince them [the EU leaders] of. But you know it takes time.”
