Backlash builds over Hungary joining Russia, Syria and Belarus at security summit
“The Hungarian government never wastes an opportunity to shame us,” said MEP Nathalie Loiseau.
Criticism grew late Tuesday over Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó’s trip to Minsk to participate in a security forum with senior officials from Russia, Belarus and Syria.
Current and former senior officials lambasted Hungary — a member of the NATO military alliance — over its increasingly cozy relationship with Russia as it wages war on Ukraine.
“The Hungarian government never wastes an opportunity to shame us,” said Nathalie Loiseau, a French MEP from the Renew Europe group who sits on the Parliament’s foreign affairs committee.
“In French, we say ‘when you cross boundaries, there are no limits,’” said Camille Grand, a former NATO assistant secretary-general. “Extremely troubling,” he added.
Marko Mihkelson, chairman of the Estonian Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, echoed their frustration, asking, “How long more?”
Szijjártó, the top diplomat in Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government, is set to speak on October 31 at the Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security, a summit seen by Russia and its allies as a rival to the Munich Security Conference.
The Hungarian foreign minister has visited Moscow, St. Petersburg and Minsk multiple times since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and Orbán has maintained his close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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