EU Cancels Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Budapest Following Orban’s ‘Peace Mission’ to Moscow

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell arrives for a meeting at the European Union headquarters in Brussels on June 29, 2023. Nicolas Maeterlinck/Belga Mag/AFP via Getty Images

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has canceled a planned meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Budapest after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Russia without a mandate from Brussels.

“We have to send a signal [to Budapest], even if it is a symbolic signal,” Mr. Borrell told reporters on July 22.

According to the EU’s top diplomat, the venue for the meeting, which is slated for late August, has been moved to Brussels, where the EU is headquartered.

On July 1, Hungary assumed the EU’s six-month rotating presidency, which allows it to organize—and host—high-profile events and meetings. However, according to Brussels, the role doesn’t authorize Hungarian officials, including Mr. Orban, to engage in diplomacy on behalf of the 27-nation bloc.

Mr. Borrell also rejected Mr. Orban’s claims that the EU was pursuing a “pro-war” policy vis-à-vis Russia’s ongoing invasion of eastern Ukraine.

Budapest, he said, should be calling Russian President Vladimir Putin “pro-war,” not the EU.

“If you want to talk about the war party, talk about Putin,” Mr. Borrell said.

Peter Szijjarto, Hungary’s foreign minister, appeared indifferent to where the planned foreign ministers’ meeting would be held.

“It was all the same to me in the beginning and it’s all the same to me now,” Mr. Szijjarto said in a July 23 statement.

Despite Russia’s ongoing invasion, now in its third year, Hungary under Mr. Orban has remained on relatively good terms with Moscow.

Mr. Orban is one of the few EU leaders to challenge unqualified Western support for Ukraine, militarily and otherwise. He’s also the only EU head of state besides Slovakia’s prime minister to call for a negotiated solution to the ongoing Russia–Ukraine conflict.

Mr. Orban’s fellow EU leaders have accused him of being too close to Moscow, thereby undermining the bloc’s efforts to isolate Russia on the international stage.

Budapest says it wants to end the destructive conflict as soon as possible.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (L) meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow on July 5, 2024. Valery Sharifulin/AFP via Getty Images

Unsanctioned ‘Peace Mission’

The decision to change the meeting venue follows Mr. Orban’s self-styled “peace mission” that recently took him to Kyiv, Moscow, Beijing, and the United States.

On July 2, the day after Hungary assumed the EU presidency, he traveled to Kyiv, where he discussed prospects for peace with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Three days later, he visited Moscow, where he had a similar discussion with Mr. Putin.

In a July 5 social media post, Mr. Orban defended the meeting, saying: “You cannot make peace from a comfortable armchair in Brussels. Even if the rotating EU Presidency has no mandate to negotiate on behalf of the EU, we cannot sit back and wait for the war to miraculously end.”

Nevertheless, the meeting in Moscow drew sharp rebukes from Mr. Orban’s fellow EU leaders.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen appeared to suggest that Mr. Orban’s meeting with the Russian leader was tantamount to “appeasement.”

“Only unity and determination will pave the path to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine,” she wrote in a social media post.

Nevertheless, on July 8, Mr. Orban visited China, which has drawn increasingly closer to Russia since the latter launched its invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

In Beijing, Mr. Orban met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, with whom he reportedly discussed prospects for achieving peace between Russia and Ukraine.

Soon afterward, Mr. Orban went to the United States, where he met with former U.S. President Donald Trump, who is seeking reelection, at the latter’s Florida residence.

“The discussion was about the possibilities of peace,” a spokesman for Mr. Orban said after the July 11 meeting.

In past remarks, former President Trump has vowed to resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine diplomatically if he wins a fresh presidential term in November.

European Union flags fly outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels on March 1, 2023. Johanna Geron/Reuters

‘No Role’ in Diplomacy

Mr. Orban’s unsanctioned “peace mission” sent shockwaves across Western officialdom.

Speaking to reporters on July 11, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan described the Trump–Orban meeting as diplomatic “adventurism.”

Mr. Sullivan was also quick to note that the meeting was not “consistent with ... the policy of the United States.”

Several EU members—including Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Poland, and the three Baltic States—have all temporarily downgraded their participation in meetings arranged by the EU presidency.

Foreign ministers’ meetings are among the most high-profile events that EU members can host when holding the EU’s rotating presidency.

Hungary will hold the EU presidency until Dec. 31, after which it will be assumed by Poland.

Reuters contributed to this report.