President Trump\u2019s hosting of Hungary\u2019s Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n at the White House on Friday provides the European leader a major platform to showcase how the two are conservative kindred spirits, but it comes as the president has soured on Budapest’s embrace of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his country\u2019s oil exports.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Orb\u00e1n is receiving his White House debut 10 months into the president\u2019s second term, a significant snub for one of Trump\u2019s fiercest supporters in the world. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a consequential meeting for Orb\u00e1n, who is asking\u00a0Trump to provide Hungary with an exemption to continue importing Russian oil<\/a> not subject to punishing U.S. sanctions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Orb\u00e1n succeeded in receiving Trump\u2019s endorsement for what is shaping up to be competitive parliamentary elections<\/a> in April. He\u2019s not likely to face any pressure from the U.S. over his undemocratic practices<\/a>, including weaponizing the justice system to go after political opponents and critics; unfair practices in elections; failure to meaningfully tackle corruption, and undermining freedom of speech.\u00a0<\/p>\n A White House spokesperson said Trump and Orb\u00e1n have “a good relationship” and will talk over areas “of mutual interest.”<\/p>\n \u201cThe American people can expect more good deals out of Prime Minister Orban\u2019s visit spanning various industries \u2013 stay tuned!” the White House said.<\/p>\n But Orb\u00e1n is coming to the White House with largely empty hands, a series of asks and not much to offer. <\/p>\n \u201cFrom a Hungarian perspective and especially from the governing party\u2019s perspective, the fact that it takes place is really significant and it will be, no matter what, framed as a massive political success,\u201d said Zsuzsanna V\u00e9gh, program officer of Transatlantic Trusts with the German Marshall Fund.<\/p>\n \u201cBut from an American perspective in terms of political and economic relevance, Orb\u00e1n, I believe is not as important as the Hungarians like to say and to portray it.\u201d<\/p>\n Top of the list is an exemption for Hungary to continue importing Russian oil, at risk of possible secondary sanctions from Trump\u2019s decision to blacklist Russia\u2019s two major oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil. <\/p>\n Hungary\u2019s Foreign Minister P\u00e9ter Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3 said Wednesday that Budapest is looking to secure in Washington an \u201ceconomic and energy cooperation package\u201d that is based on \u201clong-term energy security for Hungary,\u201d U.S. investments creating jobs and a \u201cstable financial framework to support these goals.\u201d<\/p>\n Hungary is looking to purchase nuclear fuel from the U.S. for its nuclear plant. Although Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3 said Budapest is not likely to adjust its nuclear fuel purchases from Russia, Reuters reported<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Trump has signaled openness to Hungary\u2019s request on Russian oil, telling reporters last month that Budapest is at a disadvantage because of its lack of access to the sea and is \u201csort of stuck because it has one pipeline,\u201d delivering energy from Russia. <\/p>\n \u201cOrb\u00e1n, I think, may be Trump’s closest friends among foreign leaders. \u2026 Trump remembers his friends, and Orb\u00e1n is aware of that,\u201d said Fred Fleitz, vice chair of the America First Policy Institute\u2019s American Security program and who served as chief of staff of the National Security Council and deputy assistant to Trump in his first term.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fleitz pointed out Orb\u00e1n\u2019s support for Trump throughout his presidential campaigns in the U.S., being the first foreign leader to endorse Trump and visit his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after the president announced his third campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fleitz also suggested Orb\u00e1n could sell himself as a key ally in Trump\u2019s push for his peace plan in the Gaza Strip, in countering what he described as dangerous moves by other European countries to recognize a Palestinian state and support the Palestinian Authority taking over governance in the Gaza Strip. <\/p>\n Orb\u00e1n \u201ccould be a powerful voice in EU meetings and stop EU decorations and resolutions because they have to be unanimous,\u201d Fleitz said.\u00a0<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not yet clear if that friendship is strong enough to disrupt Trump\u2019s major gamble on sanctioning Russian oil. <\/p>\n \u201cTrump is pretty determined to stop nations from importing energy from Russia, so I think there’s going to be some discussions about finding some alternate sources for Hungary, but in the short term Orb\u00e1n would like to see some exemptions for those purchases,\u201d Fleitz said.\u00a0<\/p>\n A group of bipartisan senators on Thursday introduced a resolution calling on all remaining European countries, singling out Hungary, to fully end their dependence on Russian energy and close remaining loopholes that continue to fund Putin’s war against Ukraine. <\/p>\n \u201cVladimir Putin is a war criminal who uses Russia\u2019s energy exports to fund his campaign of murder and aggression,\u201d Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said in a statement. Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), John Curtis (R-Utah) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) also signed on to the measure with six Democrats.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hungary\u2019s critics say Budapest\u2019s position is self-inflicted and a feature of its pro-Kremlin positioning, failing to take steps like European countries in similar situations to diversify its energy. Budapest faces a 2027 deadline under a European Union law to get off Russian energy completely. <\/p>\n And Trump has increasingly grown frustrated with Putin\u2019s refusal to halt his more than three-year, full-scale war in Ukraine. Orb\u00e1n has maintained enmity toward Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and blamed Europe\u2019s support for Kyiv as prolonging the war.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ukraine will be a major part of the agenda, but Orb\u00e1n is viewed as a spoil sport in Europe: opposed to military support for Ukraine, blocking the EU from reimbursing countries that send military equipment to Ukraine, standing in the way of Ukraine\u2019s accession to the EU, and continuing to fill the Kremlin\u2019s coffers with purchases of Russian oil.\u00a0<\/p>\n Orb\u00e1n\u2019s offer for Budapest to serve as a meeting ground for a second, face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin still stands \u2014 a meeting that Trump called off because he didn\u2019t view the Russian leader as serious about coming to an agreement to end the war. <\/p>\n \u201cThat summit is happening. Take it as fact,\u201d Orb\u00e1n said last month during a trip to the Vatican,<\/a>\u00a0adding that he is trying to rally Slovakia and Czechia \u2014 both with large, right-wing political constituencies \u2014 in joining Budapest\u2019s position.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ukraine\u2019s supporters are consistently wary of Orb\u00e1n but aren\u2019t expending too much energy to protect against his visit to the White House, buoyed by the daylight between Budapest and the White House, given Trump\u2019s increasing frustration with Putin. <\/p>\n \u201cThe White House should be clear-eyed about the fact that, despite Trump\u2019s chumminess with Orb\u00e1n, he has been the roadblock to the action the United States is demanding from Europe,\u201d James Batchik, an associate director at the Atlantic Council\u2019s Europe Center, wrote in a recent article<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Trump team should press Orb\u00e1n to stop playing spoiler and allow Europe to take the meaningful action it needs to as Ukraine\u2019s biggest backer.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Trump\u2019s hosting of Hungary\u2019s Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n at the White House on Friday provides the European ...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1527,"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526\/revisions\/1527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltaalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}