Putin holds first meeting with an EU leader since invasion

BEIJING >> Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán held talks Tuesday with Vladimir Putin, becoming the first leader of a European Union nation to meet in person with the Russian president since the beginning of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.

The two leaders met in Beijing ahead of an international forum on one of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature policies, the Belt and Road Initiative. Their meeting, which focused on Hungary’s access to Russian energy, marked the end of nearly 20 months in which Western leaders eschewed contact with Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.

“Hungary never wanted to confront Russia, Hungary always has been eager to expand contacts,” Orbán told Putin, according to a Russian translation of his remarks broadcast on Russian state television.

Bilateral ties between the two countries have suffered because of EU sanctions against Moscow, he said.

Hungary’s stance on the war has confounded its European partners and led to deadlocks in providing financial and military assistance to Kyiv.

Orbán has refused to supply Ukraine with weapons and not allowed their transfer across the Hungarian-Ukrainian border. He has also threatened to veto EU sanctions against Moscow, though has always ultimately voted in favor of them.

Orbán’s meeting with Putin appeared to be a boon for the Russian president, who could point to it as a sign that unity within the EU on its support for Ukraine — and its condemnation of Russia for starting the war — was faltering.

‘Satisfaction’

Putin said that while opportunities for maintaining ties with some countries are “limited in the current geopolitical situation, it causes satisfaction that we have managed to preserve and develop relations with many European countries, including Hungary.”

Budapest has blocked an EU military aid package to Kyiv worth $526 million since May, and said it would continue doing so until it receives concessions from Kyiv concerning its listing of a Hungarian bank as an international sponsor of the war.

Orbán, a right-wing populist leader who has repeatedly criticized Western sanctions against Russia, said that his country has remained eager to maintain ties with Moscow, on which Hungary is highly dependent for natural gas, oil and nuclear fuel.

While most of Hungary’s neighbors in Central and Eastern Europe have taken great strides to wean themselves off of Russian energy, Orbán has worked to maintain and even increase supplies of Russian gas and oil, arguing that they are essential for the functioning of Hungary’s economy.