Index – Foreign – German foreign minister gives poor review of Viktor Orban’s peace mission

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“It’s too serious now for small competitions,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said during a meeting with her Dutch counterpart Kasper Veldkamp in Berlin.

The background of his statement is that the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said on Monday that the foreign ministers and defense ministers of the member states will hold an informal meeting at the end of August. Not Budapest – They would prefer to hold it in Brussels, despite requests from Germany, Spain and Luxembourg.

Borrell said he hoped the decision would be a “symbolic consequence” of the peace mission launched by the Hungarian prime minister earlier this month, during which Viktor Orban traveled to Moscow without the approval of his EU partners. With Russian President Vladimir Putin Discuss the situation in Ukraine.

Berbock also said that it was Josep Borrell, not Viktor Orban, who represented the rotating EU presidency in terms of foreign, security and defense policy. He said it was not surprising that the Hungarian prime minister’s move “caused confusion” and said he would accept Borrell’s invitation to Brussels.

Kaspar Wildkamp: It is impossible to discuss Ukraine without Ukraine

Kasper Wildkamp said at the meeting that the Netherlands hopes that the Hungarian presidency will serve the unity of the European Union and act as an honest mediator in the government. The Dutch Foreign Minister called Viktor Orban’s peace mission a mistake and stressed:

The aggressor is Russia and the victim is Ukraine. We cannot discuss Ukraine without Ukraine.

As he said, he would also be happy to accept Borrell’s invitation to attend the meeting of foreign and defense ministers in Brussels, and the decision to attend informal Security Council meetings is made on a case-by-case basis.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof announced last week that he would reject the proposal. General boycottthe Dutch government will decide on a case-by-case basis whether its ministers will attend events during the Hungarian EU presidency. He also stressed that, in his opinion, Viktor Orbán made it clear that the criticized meetings were organized on a bilateral basis and that he did not represent the EU during his visit, MTI wrote.