Eight days after Hungary began its presidency of the Council of the European Union, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is on another trip abroad. On Monday evening, he posted a photo on his personal page with the caption “Peace Mission 3.0. #Beijing.” According to a report by the Hungarian state news agency MTI, Orbán wants to talk to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The previous week, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin visited in a unilateral move that was criticized by his EU partners. Hungary is due to take over the presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of the year, but that does not entail any foreign policy representation. Only EU Council President Charles Michel and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell are authorized to do so. Borrell only mentioned this fact on Saturday evening, after Orbán also took part in the summit of the Organization of Turkic States in Azerbaijan, thus stabbing EU member state Cyprus in the back. The organization’s observer is also the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which has established a breakaway regime in the northern part of the EU member state with Turkey’s military support.
Before visiting the Kremlin, Orban also visited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. Orban is a critic of Kyiv's military support.
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