Putin meets with Hungary's prime minister in rare in-person talks with an EU leader
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has held talks with Vladimir Putin in a rare in-person meeting for the Russian president with a leader of a European Union country
BEIJING — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán held talks on Tuesday with Vladimir Putin in a rare in-person meeting for the Russian president with a leader of a European Union country.
Orbán and Putin met in Beijing before an international forum on one of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature policies, the Belt and Road Initiative. Their meeting focused on Hungary’s access to Russian energy.
EU and other Western leaders have largely eschewed contact with Putin over Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began in February. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer met with Putin in person in April 2022.
“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.
Putin said that while opportunities for maintaining ties
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