Two months have passed since the summit between the American and Russian presidents in Alaska, and Donald Trump has decided to meet with Vladimir Putin once again. Yesterday, during a more than two-hour “productive” phone call, the two agreed to hold their next meeting in Budapest “within the next two weeks or so.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomed the prospect of hosting Trump and Putin, calling the planned meeting between the US and Russian presidents a “peace summit.” Orbán, who also spoke with Trump by phone on Thursday, added that “Hungary is an island of peace!”
Hungary had already been on the shortlist of potential venues for the Trump–Putin summit, which eventually took place in Anchorage in mid-August. Orbán, seen as one of Ukraine’s most outspoken critics within both the EU and NATO, is unlikely to object to Washington and Moscow striking a so-called peace deal without Kyiv’s involvement — particularly after his recent public spats with Ukraine’s president over Hungary’s continued blocking of EU accession talks.
Moreover, Putin has little reason to fear that the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against him for war crimes would be enforced in Hungary. Earlier this year, Orbán dismissed the ICC as a “political court” and announced that Hungary would withdraw from the Rome Statute. As Hungarian political scientist and historian Sándor Földvári told The Ukrainian Week at the time, Orbán is “Putin’s Trojan horse in the European Union.”
“If Putin manages to seize political control over Europe through Orbán, major Western powers like Germany and France might still be able to push back. But for Ukraine, it would be complete devastation. Some analysts have argued that Orbán might be trying to undermine the European Union from within and take control — after which Putin could install his own puppet to run Europe. Let’s hope it never comes to that,” he said.
Meanwhile, it remains unclear how exactly Putin plans to get to Hungary, since the direct route from Moscow to Budapest passes through either Polish or Romanian airspace.
“Both Poland and Romania firmly back Ukraine in the war, and their airspace has been closed to Russian airlines for more than three and a half years now. A longer route would take Putin’s plane from Russia over the Black Sea, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Serbia before reaching Hungary. However, Bulgaria also closed its airspace to Russian flights at the start of the war in Ukraine,” writes the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
It’s also worth noting that in just six months, Hungary will hold parliamentary elections, after which a new government will be formed. As Bloomberg previously reported, Orbán — who has been in power since 2010 — is now facing a genuine threat of losing control amid a sharp surge in support for opposition parties.
Trump has already thrown his public support behind Orbán’s candidacy. Just a few days ago, he called the Hungarian leader “fantastic,” adding that while many people may disagree with him, he is “the only one who matters.” “He won [the previous election — Ed.] by 28 points. So this time, you’ll do even better. You’ll have another election, and you’ll achieve great results — we appreciate that and support you 100%,” Trump declared.
If Hungary does end up hosting talks between the US and Russia, it would bolster Orbán’s long-standing narrative of “Hungary as a mediator of peace” — a theme he could easily weave into his campaign rhetoric as proof of his international stature. Still, several outcomes are possible. Should the talks go poorly — particularly if they appear to serve as cover for “cutting a deal with Russia” behind Ukraine’s or the West’s back — the move could just as easily backfire on Orbán.
