U.S.
President Donald Trump greets Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban in
the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., May 13, 2019.
REUTERS/Carlos Barria/ File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
EU chief rebukes Hungary's Orban over 'peace mission' with Trump talks
BRUSSELS,
July 16 (Reuters) - A top European Union official rebuked Hungarian
Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Tuesday after he launched a self-styled
Ukraine "peace mission" that included talks with Donald Trump and the leaders of Russia and China without EU backing.
Orban
told fellow leaders of the 27-nation bloc in a letter that Trump, the
U.S. Republican presidential candidate, is ready to act "immediately" as
a peace broker in the Russia-Ukraine war if he is elected in November.
Many European officials fear
Trump could cut U.S. support for Kyiv and push Ukraine into peace talks
that would give Moscow a substantial slice of Ukraine and embolden
Russian President Vladimir Putin to pursue further military adventures.
Hungary
- which has maintained close ties to Russia since the February 2022
invasion of Ukraine - took on the EU's rotating six-month presidency at
the start of this month.
But
in a reply to Orban's letter, Charles Michel, the chair of the European
Council of the EU's national leaders, told the Hungarian premier he had
no EU mandate for talks on the war.
"The
rotating Presidency of the Council has no role in representing the
Union on the international stage and received no European Council
mandate to engage on behalf of the Union," Michel told Orban in a letter
seen by Reuters.
Michel, a former Belgian prime minister, also rejected Orban's assertion that the EU had pursued a "pro-war" policy in Ukraine.
"It
is quite the opposite," Michel wrote. "Russia is the aggressor and
Ukraine is the victim exercising its legitimate right to self-defence."
Nationalist leader Orban, a long-time Trump supporter, followed a trip to Kyiv with surprise visits to Moscow and Beijing before attending a NATO summit in Washington last week and holding talks with Trump in Florida.
In
his letter, Orban said Trump, in the event of his victory in the U.S.
election in November, would not wait until his inauguration but would
"be ready to act as a peace broker immediately. He has detailed and
well-founded plans for this".
EU FURY
Orban's actions have sparked fury among many EU governments and officials.
The European Commission on Monday took the unprecedented step of barring EU Commissioners from attending meetings held in Hungary under the country's EU presidency.
Some
EU governments also plan to send only top civil servants, rather than
government ministers, to ministerial meetings in Hungary and 63 European Parliament lawmakers have asked the EU to suspend Budapest's voting rights in the bloc.
In his letter, Orban also said that U.S. President Joe Biden was "not capable of modifying the current U.S. pro-war policy".
Orban
has long criticised European military support for Ukraine, in contrast
to most EU members which have provided large amounts of military aid for
Kyiv's war effort.
He
said a Trump victory would change the burden between the United States
and the EU when it comes to financial support for Ukraine, to the
disadvantage of the Europeans.
"Our
European strategy in the name of transatlantic unity has copied the
pro-war policy of the U.S. We have not had a sovereign and independent
European strategy or political action plan up to now," he said.
Orban
suggested "reopening direct lines of diplomatic communication with
Russia" while maintaining high-level contacts with Kyiv as well as
conducting talks with China "on the modalities of the next peace
conference".
In
his reply, Michel said "no discussion about Ukraine can take place
without Ukraine" and said the EU had "consistently sought to build broad
international support for a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace".
"The Union has spared no effort to reach out to all partners in this regard, including China," Michel added.
Reporting by Reuters Editing by Keith Weir, Angus MacSwan and Gareth Jones