Viktor Orban met Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in the final step, after visits to Moscow and Beijing, of the Hungarian prime minister’s controversial “peace mission” meant to bring a ceasefire to Ukraine.
Orban is often described as the closest ally in Europe of both Trump and President Putin. On Friday he posted a fawning social media video of his welcome at the former US president’s luxurious Palm Beach retreat.
“Negotiations with President Trump on peace. The good news of the day: he will solve it,” Orban said, after posing for “thumbs up” pictures with Trump, who is vying for a second term in the White House. “President Trump proved during his presidency that he is a man of peace. He will do it again.”
The video shows Orban arriving in Palm Beach, Florida, and passing Trump’s personal jet at the airport before moving to the palatial interior of Mar-a-Lago, including a close-up of a framed picture of the former president on the cover of Time magazine, in what appeared to be an ornately tiled bathroom.
The two men are shown in front of a sculpture of an American eagle in a gilded reception room, then there is a bottle of 2020 Trump “Heritage” wine, thought to be a gift to Orban, whose country is renowned for its vintages.
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European and other western diplomats suspect that Orban is acting as an intermediary between Putin and the former US president before a potential Trump victory in elections this November. Orban visited Moscow last week.
Reposting Orban’s social media video, Trump repeated his calls for a ceasefire. “There must be peace, and quickly,” said Trump. “Too many people have died in a war that should have never started.”
Orban was ostracised by many European leaders at this week’s Nato summit, where he did not request or hold a bilateral meeting with President Biden, instead leaving early to meet Trump.
According to the Russia Media Monitor, Russian state television has hinted that Orban is acting as a go-between as Trump can not politically afford to open a personal line of communication with Putin before the November elections.
Last week Orban was accused of “appeasement” by Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, after he turned up in Moscow to hold talks with Putin without telling any other European Union leaders.
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That trip was followed by a visit to Beijing for a meeting with President Xi before going to Washington for the Nato summit. Orban began his “mission” in Ukraine on July 2, startling diplomatic observers by calling for a ceasefire while standing alongside President Zelensky in Kyiv.
The EU is expected to issue Orban with an official reprimand for the trip, which came as he assumed the union’s rotating presidency. A letter issuing Orban with a “yellow card” will be sent to Budapest over the coming week, warning him that unless he stops, other European leaders will boycott summits held in Hungary under his term of the EU presidency.
“This was a political mistake to go to Moscow,” Charles Michel, the European Council president, who chairs meetings of EU leaders, told the Financial Times in Washington on Thursday. “This is a problem. This way of working is not acceptable.”
At the Nato summit President Stubb of Finland said: “Viktor Orban has no mandate from the alliance, nor from the EU, to conduct any form of negotiations.”
On Friday the German foreign ministry said Orban’s EU presidency had “already caused a lot of damage”.
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The Kremlin said that Orban did not tell Putin of his plans to meet Trump, and Putin did not convey any message to the former US president via the Hungarian leader.
Zelensky has dismissed Orban’s shuttle diplomacy as meaningless. “Where he will go tomorrow? I don’t know. I don’t know. Maybe he will come again to Ukraine,” Zelensky said during a press conference at the Nato summit. “Not all leaders can negotiate. You need to have some power.”
After his visit to Nato, it was revealed that Zelensky was reportedly planning a visit to the UK next week to address European leaders at Blenheim Palace, where heads of state are due to discuss European security and democracy. While his travel arrangements are rarely confirmed in advance, a source purportedly told the Guardian it was “90 per cent certain” that Zelensky would make the trip, days after meeting Keir Starmer, the prime minister, in Washington.
