Brussels is well up for Europe to feature more in talks about ending the war in Ukraine—that is, unless the limelight is on Hungary.
So it is no surprise that EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas thinks the possibility of Russia’s Vladimir Putin meeting with Donald Trump—and possibly Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky—for a peace summit in Budapest is “not nice.”
Kallas told reporters on Monday that “it’s not nice … to see that really a person put to the arrest warrant by the ICC”—that is, the International Criminal Court, from which Hungary announced its withdrawal earlier this year—“is coming to a European country.” She went on to say that the “question is whether there is any outcome,” which quite unfairly suggests that talks are only acceptable if they are successful.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys went even further, insisting that “the only place for Putin in Europe [is] in The Hague [the home of the ICC], in front of the tribunal, not in any of our capitals.”
That’s all well and good, but it is important to note that the EU’s talk of its support for Kyiv is totally hollow.
Responding to Kallas’ pooh-poohing of the upcoming Budapest summit, Balázs Orbán, the political director of Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán, said “it hardly needs explaining why the preparation of peace talks is not taking place with Brussels’ involvement.”
One only has to look at the EU’s High Representative’s statements today: she spoke about arresting the negotiating parties and introducing further sanctions.
Orbán added:
The truth is that Brussels has never truly wanted peace. … And it has failed to notice that, in the meantime, it has been left completely alone. While the Brussels elite continues to act as an agent for one party’s interests, the rest of the world already wants peace.
⚠️ @kajakallas believes that it is “not a nice thing” that the US–Russia peace summit is taking place in 🇭🇺Budapest. Yet after three & a half years of war rhetoric, new sanctions, and political declarations, it hardly needs explaining why the preparation of peace talks is not… https://t.co/MZe7dXlcfF
Whether they want peace or not, Brussels officials are slowly coming round to admitting that they will ultimately have no option but to accept any deal put forward by Trump.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
