Hungary’s Foreign Minister: Trump Is Ukraine’s Only Hope for Peace

As the White House ramps up pressure on Moscow to end the war in Ukraine, supporters of peace negotiations hope that a previously announced Trump–Putin summit in Budapest remains in the offing. One person who thinks it does is Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, who recently sat down with The American Conservative to discuss tensions between Hungary and Poland, efforts by the European Union to erode national sovereignty, and the prospects for peace in Ukraine.

Thank you for speaking to TAC. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been talking about peace for a while. Now we see both President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump interested in Budapest being a peace venue, despite EU opposition and despite the previous baggage of the last Budapest memorandum. What role do we see Hungary playing in the forthcoming Budapest summit, and how does that vindicate the position of the ruling party?

Well, first of all, I have to tell you that the only hope for peace to be made in Ukraine is President Trump. That was one of the reasons why we have crossed our fingers for him to win the elections here, because we all knew that if the Democrats had stayed in power, they would have further fueled the conflict, and there would have been no hope for peace to be made. So, the only hope for peace to return to Central Europe is President Trump. 

For the last three and a half years, for the time the war has been on, Hungary has been the only country which has stood up for peace from the very beginning; we never delivered weapons to Ukraine. We always wanted to avoid the money of our taxpayers being sent to Ukraine, although we have received all the refugees, without question. But we always had a clear understanding that this war will never end on the battlefield. The only place where this war can end is a negotiating table, and the only way this war can end is diplomacy. And therefore, we support all peace initiatives. At the very beginning of the war, we made it very clear that we are ready to assist any peace initiative with all our capacities, and we were reached out to last Thursday by President Trump, then by President Putin, and told that they agreed on Budapest as a location, which made us very happy. We are happy that this takes place in Budapest, because we will provide all necessary circumstances and logistics for a successful peace summit.