Hungary, the only NATO country besides Turkey that has not ratified Sweden and Finland’s membership of the Western Defense Organization, postponed it to next year this Thursday.
Hungary’s parliament will decide on this by voting “at its first session” in 2023, nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán declared on the sidelines of a summit of the Visegrad Group (V4, a cooperation alliance between four Central European countries: Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic) in the Slovak city of Kosice.
However, Orbán assured the two northern European countries of his support to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in a context of the Russian war in Ukraine, which was started by Russia at the end of February this year.
The V4 agreed this Thursday that one of its “strategic objectives” is to defend Ukraine’s preservation of its territorial integrity and to refuse to let Russia threaten European security, Orbán said in a press conference after participating in the group’s summit in Slovakia. second largest city, in the east of the country.
“We have agreed on two strategic objectives” about Ukraine, said the Hungarian top man, who is considered Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in the European Union (EU).
The leader of Hungary’s ruling party, Fidesz (conservative), specified that the first objective is that “Russia must not pose a threat to the security of Europe” and the second that “Ukraine must preserve its territorial integrity”.
According to Orbán, this is the “minimum deal” on Ukraine reached by the leaders of the Visegrad group, a regional bloc that celebrated 30 years of operation and whose harmony has been undermined in recent months by Budapest’s hesitant position vis-à-vis Moscow. .
While Hungary has so far participated in every package of sanctions imposed by the EU on the Kremlin, its restraint and veto threats have limited some of these sanctions.
In addition, Budapest not only refuses to supply weapons to Ukraine, it also does not allow those sent by other member states to travel through its territory.
Orbán reiterated his position on Thursday, declaring that the decision whether or not to provide military support to Ukraine is a “sovereign right” of each country.
On the other hand, he assured that Hungary will participate in the new financial aid to Ukraine approved by the EU, although he rejects the community bloc taking on more debt in order to implement this aid.
The military offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine on February 24 has already led to the flight of more than 13 million people – more than six million internally displaced people and more than 7.8 million to European countries – according to the latest UN data. to land. which classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
The Russian invasion – justified by Putin with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the international community at large, which responded by sending arms to Ukraine and imposing political and economic sanctions. put to Russia.
The UN presented as confirmed since the start of the war, which today entered its 274th day, 6,595 civilian deaths and 10,189 wounded, underlining that these numbers are well below the real ones.
Source: DN
