After talks with his counterpart from North Macedonia Hristijan Mickoski, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Hungary welcomes US-Russia talks seeking to bring about peace in Ukraine, and it has a vested interest in their success. Continuing the war would be "bad, dangerous, and a mistake," he added.
"We have all been living in the shadow of war for three years, and we now have the best hope for peace replacing war," PM Orbán told a joint press conference in Budapest.
PM Orbán added that Hungary was in disagreement with those European Union member states that were"also our friends and allies" but had decided that "Ukraine must continue the war"."We believe that continuing the war in Ukraine is bad, dangerous, and a mistake," adding that he would discuss this matter at Thursday's special summit in Brussels.
PM Orbán said migration was also an important topic of the talks with Mickoski, adding that Hungary was thankful to North Macedonia because by protecting its borders it was also protecting Hungary.
"We have all been living in the shadow of war for three years, and we now have the best hope for peace replacing war," PM Orbán told a joint press conference.
He added that Hungary was in disagreement with those European Union member states that were "also our friends and allies" but had decided that "Ukraine must continue the war". "We believe that continuing the war in Ukraine is bad, dangerous, and a mistake," adding that he would discuss this matter at Thursday's special summit in Brussels.
PM Orbán said that he had welcomed the fact that the peace resolutions had also been discussed in the UN, and Hungary and North Macedonia represented the same positions there. They supported the US proposal which was then also approved by the Security Council, he added.
He said the issue of migration had been an important topic of Tuesday's talks. Hungary is thankful to North Macedonia for protecting its borders, by which it was also protecting Hungary, he said, adding that "the better they protect their own border, the fewer migrants attack Hungary's southern border".
PM Orbán said Hungary rejected the European Union migration pact and would never accept it, for which it must pay a large fine "in the spirit of European friendship".
He said North Macedonia could count on Hungary in the European integration process. He added that it was shameful that the process was making very slow progress, the responsibility for which lay with the member states.
Hungary supports North Macedonia's EU integration because, among other things, the EU must improve its competitiveness, he said, insisting that there was nothing within the EU itself that could help the bloc to achieve that aim.
He said all enlargements, however, had brought about an increase in competitiveness, including in Hungary.
PM Orbán said the joint cabinet meeting reviewed bilateral ties, too, noting that bilateral trade between Hungary and North Macedonia has grown seven-fold since 2010.
He said he considered North Macedonia to belong to the same economic region as Hungary, also including Serbia. The prime minister added that he believed this was an economic area where cooperation had great economic potential. "The problem is that we are within the EU and they are outside which prevents organising the area into a unified economic power," he said.
PM Orbán said the problem could only be resolved by ways of developing as intensive intergovernmental relations as possible, involving maintaining frequent and intensive contacts and cooperation.
He said this involved linking the two countries' economic systems, adding that an intergovernmental, economic agreement was being planned. In addition to the two states, private capital and the private economy must also take part, so businesses from both countries were being encouraged to participate in each other's economies as much as possible.
PM Orbán said the situation of the western world had been reviewed at the talks because both countries belonged to it. He said they could see a divide in transatlantic relations that became obvious to the world in recent days. The transatlantic divide made it even more necessary to maintain as intensive relations between the two countries as possible, he added.
In response to a question, PM Orbán said he would hold talks with the French president on Wednesday and attend a prime ministers' summit in Brussels on Thursday.
PM Orbán said that since the US had taken a pro-peace position, the difference in positions between those that want peace and those that want war cannot be bridged with communications.
"Some want war and some want peace. This challenge will have to be grappled with on Thursday. For me also on Wednesday, but that's a different matter," he added.
PM Orbán said Thursday's prime ministerial summit will also have to address the question of what Europe wanted to do for its own military security. It will not be a tactical but a strategic matter on the agenda, he said, adding that he believed there were better chances for cooperation in this issue than in the issue of war and peace.
He also said that talks and meetings between US and Hungarian leaders could be considered as "part of normal life" these days, considering that the US and Hungary were involved in the same fight for civilisation in order to save the west.
Cooperation between them is not simply based on tactical or economic interests, but has a deeper foundation: "we are involved in a fight for civilisation, with progressives on one side and patriots on the other".
PM Orbán said that ever since the patriots had won in the US, attempts of destabilisation had strengthened in central Europe, with Serbia, Slovakia and Hungary being targeted. The global financial and political "machinery" that had previously occupied the US government, Brussels and a few European member states had to be "pushed out" from Hungary, Orban said, adding that he was planning to complete the last battles with the Soros network by Easter.
"Those global financial powers have lost Washington, retreated to Brussels and are now fighting for seizing the outposts in central Europe. But in three of the region’s countries, namely Serbia, Slovakia and Hungary, patriotic governments are in power and what you’re seeing now happening is the consequence of this," said Orban.
The networks PM Orbán said had paymasters who give them instructions and orders. "So what we now see happening in this region is a dense period of time, but all three countries are capable of protecting their own stability," he said.
"It is in Hungary’s national interest to be surrounded by stable countries and that any effort aimed at the destabilisation of countries important for Hungary should fail," the prime minister added.
He said Hungary had a "responsible neighbourhood policy" towards North Macedonia. "We support countries in our region, the stability of which is important for Hungary."
North Macedonia PM Orbán said also helps Hungary. "We have a common regional system of values which is why we provide financial help to North Macedonia, which, in exchange, offers us economic cooperation possibilities."
Speaking about North Macedonia’s EU integration, PM Orbán said that he considered the European Union's procedure to be shameful. "There are other countries in the Western Balkans that are not being treated fairly by Brussels … Brussels allowed each member state to set conditions for North Macedonia and referred these issues to bilateral negotiations, instead of Brussels helping to resolve them," he said.
"That is why the European Union's greatest moral debt today is to North Macedonia".