Szijjártó: Trump did not call Viktor Orbán after his talks with European leaders

On Thursday morning, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Péter Szijjártó commented on several recent developments related to the Russian-Ukrainian war concerning Hungary's potential role in the efforts towards peace. Speaking in the pro-government Harcosok Órája (The Hour of Warriors) podcast, Szijjártó denied that Donald Trump had called Viktor Orbán after his meeting with European leaders on Monday. However, he did not rule out Budapest as a possible venue for a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

According to the minister, it is realistic for Budapest to be considered as a potential venue for a future meeting of the two, as in his opinion, Hungary is currently the only Western country capable of maintaining a "fair, mutually respectful" relationship with both Russia and the United States. He said:

“If needed, we are here, and would provide the appropriately fair and secure conditions for such peace talks at any time. We would be happy to contribute to the success of the peace efforts."

According to Szijjártó, however, there have been some false reports about the events of the past few days in the press. Szijjártó introduced the topic by saying that major international news agencies "tend to portray themselves as having high moral standards." He said that this was also the case with Bloomberg, which falsely claimed that after his talks with European leaders, Donald Trump had called Viktor Orbán and tried to convince him not to block Ukraine's EU accession bid.

“I would like to make it clear that there was no such phone call,”

Szijjártó said. In his view, the media outlets that picked up this story "reported on a phone call which never took place as factual, publishing an almost verbatim transcript."

The information about the alleged phone call was indeed reported by Bloomberg, and after it was published, we contacted the Hungarian government for a comment, but we did not receive a response to our questions. It was on Tuesday that – citing its sources – Bloomberg reported that Donald Trump had called the Hungarian Prime Minister on Monday immediately after his talks with Zelensky and European leaders in Washington D.C. had concluded.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk posted on Wednesday about Budapest being considered as a venue for the negotiations, but he does not think this is the best idea. He wrote: “Budapest? Perhaps not everyone remembers, but in 1994 Ukraine already received guarantees concerning its territorial integrity from the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom. In Budapest. I may be superstitious, but it could be worth choosing another location.”