This morning, the leaders of the European Union issued a statement that amounts to giving President Donald Trump instructions for his summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Aug. 15. Just one EU leader refused to sign it, Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary. “Just four days ahead of the historic summit between President Trump and President Putin, the European Council sought to issue a statement in the name of all EU heads of state and government,” he wrote on X. “Before the liberal-mainstream chorus begins its newest rendition of their favourite ‘Putin’s puppet’ tune, I decided to share why I could NOT support the statement on behalf of Hungary.”
He made three points about the EU statement: “1. The statement attempts to set conditions for a meeting to which leaders of the EU were not invited; 2. The fact that the EU was left on the sidelines is sad enough as it is. The only thing that could make things worse is if we started providing instructions from the bench”; and third, “The only sensible action for EU leaders is to initiate an EU-Russia summit, based on the example of the U.S.-Russia meeting.”
Just as Orban characterized it, the EU statement is a list of instructions, beginning with: “A just and lasting peace that brings stability and security must respect international law, including the principles of independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and that international borders must not be changed by force.” The statement ends with: “The European Union underlines the inherent right of Ukraine to choose its own destiny and will continue supporting Ukraine on its path towards EU membership.”
It’s as if the violent 2014 U.S./EU-backed coup against a democratically elected government that was trying to choose Ukraine’s future had never happened.
