Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a Reuters interview this week that Hungary believes a second Trump presidency will boost the chances for achieving peace in Ukraine.

Currently, the country’s prime minister Viktor Orban is on a global peace mission, also in the capacity of Hungary currently holding the presidency of the EU council. Within the past two weeks he met with Presidents Putin and Xi Jinping, and before that with Zelensky in Kiev.

Via AFP

On Thursday he was in Mar-a-Lago in Florida, where he met with Donald Trump, in the next iteration of the ‘peace mission’. Hungary’s NATO allies have not been happy, especially over the meeting with Putin, and have declared that Orban is not representing the EU on this mission. The Hungarian leader was already in the US this week attending the annual NATO summit in Washington hosted by Biden.

Orban announced on X of the meeting with Trump: “It was an honor to visit President [Donald Trump] at Mar-a-Lago today. We discussed ways to make peace. The good news of the day: he’s going to solve it!”

He referenced the Florida visit as “Peace mission 5.0” – but this too resulted in consternation from EU leadership. For example, Germany’s foreign ministry responded by saying, “We have to see how the Hungarian council presidency continues. We are now on day 12 and it has already caused a lot of damage.”

But Trump agreed with Orban that it was a worthy and fruitful visit, and issued the following message:

“Thank you Viktor. There must be PEACE, and quickly. Too many people have died in a war that should have never started!” Trump wrote on social media.

Peace mission 5.0
It was an honour to visit President @realDonaldTrump at Mar-a-Lago today. We discussed ways to make #peace. The good news of the day: he’s going to solve it! pic.twitter.com/AiTRsdexM5

— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) July 12, 2024

Orban’s spokesperson later confirmed of the Mar-a-Lago visit, “The discussion was about the possibilities of peace.”

Both the White House and Zelensky have responded negatively to the Hungarian leader’s peace tour, with Zelensky telling a NATO press briefing, “Not all the leaders can make negotiations. You need to have some power for this.”

And Biden’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said any effort to negotiate peace is not possible without Ukraine’s approval and direct involvement.

“Whatever adventurism is being undertaken without Ukraine’s consent or support is not something that’s consistent with our policy, the foreign policy of the United States,” Sullivan said.

Despite Sullivan trying to ‘talk tough’ – the reality is that the White House and US position is looking weaker by the day, given all of the latest Biden flubs…

President Putin meets Vice President Trump. pic.twitter.com/ZIMylo45ae

— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) July 12, 2024

As for Orban, in an interview given earlier this month he described Trump as “a self-made man” with a “different approach to everything.”

“He is the man of peace,” Orbán had said. “Under his four-year term he did not initiate a single war, and he did a lot in order to create peace in old conflicts in very complicated areas of the world.”