Western countries are about to learn the taste of defeat – Orban | Von Der Leyen snubs Serbian PM over Russia meeting
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Most of the West is about to find out what it looks like to lose a war, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said, referring to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Hungary has been trying to not get involved and to advocate for peace, even though most EU and NATO members have backed Kiev, providing nearly $200 billion in weapons, ammunition and equipment. Speaking to the national radio broadcaster Kossuth on Friday, Orban argued that Budapest still has some leeway in policy, even though the pressure from Brussels has intensified.
🎭 @PM_ViktorOrban: Brussels wants a puppet government. All empires are like that, the Soviets were like that, weren't they?
🇭🇺We Hungarians are expected to resist such pressure, and we don't want to see a puppet government, a puppet prime minister, or a puppet state instead of… pic.twitter.com/wcVLaLu97p
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— Zoltan Kovacs (@zoltanspox) October 26, 2024
“The Westerners do not want to end the Russia-Ukraine war, but apparently want it to continue, want to go to war, now they also want to go to war in the economy,” Orban said.
“They are up to their necks in this pickle, they are in a losing war, they are losing a war right now,” the Hungarian prime minister said. “These countries, or most of them, have not lost a war since World War II – well of course the Germans lost it, but most of them were on the winning side. Now they face a completely new experience: they are about to lose a war. Hungary is not, because this is not our war, we didn’t get involved.”
All of the EU “sings in one voice” when it comes to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Orban added, yet Hungary has managed to stay on the sidelines. That gives him hope that Budapest will have leeway on “a faulty economic policy based on the logic of war” as well, he said.
According to the prime minister, the West has fallen prey to “Cold War logic” when it comes to the Ukraine conflict, reverting to the old modes of thinking and choosing to wage war not just in the security sphere, but in the economic one as well, with sanctions not just for Russia but also China.
“Of course, if the Good Lord helps us, then in America the pro-war supporters will be replaced by the pro-peace supporters, and President [Donald] Trump will return, and then we can be relieved, because we will no longer be alone, at least there will be two of us,” Orban told Kossuth Radio.
While Budapest has long been the sole dissenting voice in the EU when it came to giving financial aid to Kiev, it was joined by Bratislava last year, when Robert Fico won the elections in Slovakia and reversed many of his predecessor’s policies.
Of the members of NATO, Türkiye has chosen not to join the sanctions campaign against Russia and has sought to mediate the conflict instead. Croatia has been split on the issue, with the president advocating staying out of the Ukraine quagmire and the cabinet pushing to follow the line from Brussels.
Russia has repeatedly warned the West that its aid to Kiev would only prolong the suffering but not change the outcome on the battlefield, while risking open confrontation with Moscow.
[Top image: FILE PHOTO: Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban. © Jean Catuffe / Getty Images]
EU’s Von Der Leyen snubs Serbian PM over Russia meeting
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has canceled planned talks with Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic, citing his previous meeting with a Russian official.
Von der Leyen arrived in Belgrade on Friday as part of her Balkans tour. She met with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, and was supposed to meet Vucevic as well.
“We canceled the meeting with the prime minister after his meeting with the Russian economy minister,” the EU ambassador to Serbia Emmanuel Gioffre told AFP, noting that Serbia had signaled that it intends to “strengthen its economic relations with Russia.”
Vucevic had met with Russian Economic Development Minister Maksim Reshetnikov, whom he thanked for Moscow’s support for Serbia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Serbia greatly appreciates this support and will not forget,” Vucevic said. He also expressed thanks that Moscow had invited Belgrade to take part in the BRICS summit in Kazan earlier this week.
Vucic had said he would not attend, citing the visits by Von der Leyen and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, but several cabinet ministers and Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin went to Kazan and took part in the BRICS meetings.
Reshetnikov conveyed Moscow’s appreciation for Serbia’s refusal to join the EU in implementing sanctions against Russia. Serbia declared military neutrality and has repeatedly shrugged off pressure from Brussels to “harmonize its foreign policy” with that of the EU.
Both Vucic and the cabinet have pointed out more than once the hypocrisy and double standards of the West in insisting on Ukraine’s borders, while demanding Serbia recognize its province of Kosovo as an independent state run by NATO-backed ethnic Albanians.
Serbia is officially determined to join the EU, but the bloc has conditioned its membership on sanctioning Russia and recognizing Kosovo – among other things – which Vucic has vowed he will never do.
