Hungary's Orban talks 'peace mission' with Trump

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met with Donald Trump on Thursday and the pair discussed the "possibilities of peace", a spokesperson for the prime minister said as he pushes for a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Trump and Orban met at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida "as the next stop of his peace mission," Orban's spokesperson said. "The discussion was about the possibilities of peace."

Nationalist leader Orban, a long-time Trump supporter, made surprise visits to Kyiv, Moscow, and Beijing in the past two weeks on a self-styled "peace mission", angering NATO allies.

His meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin in particular vexed some other NATO members, who said the trip handed legitimacy to Putin when the West wants to isolate him over his war in Ukraine.

Orban traveled to Kyiv before visiting Moscow but did not tell Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about his mission to Russia, Zelenskyy said, dismissing Orban's ambition of playing the peacemaker.

"Not all the leaders can make negotiations. You need to have some power for this," Zelenskyy said earlier at a news conference at the NATO summit.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, when asked about Orban's initiative, said Ukraine would be rightly concerned about any attempt to negotiate a peace deal without involving Kyiv.

"Whatever adventurism is being undertaken without Ukraine's consent or support is not something that's consistent with our policy, the foreign policy of the United States," Sullivan said.

Orban's self-styled peace mission has also irked many members of the European Union, whose rotating presidency Hungary took over at the start of this month.

The Hungarian embassy in Washington declined to comment on the planned meeting with Trump, which was first reported by Bloomberg.

Orban has been attending a NATO summit hosted by Democratic President Joe Biden. Hungary's delegation voiced opposition to key NATO positions, while not blocking the alliance from taking action.

Reuters