Viktor Orbán sees no reason to change Hungarian foreign policy after Prigozhin's mutiny

The Prime Ministers of the V4 countries met in Bratislava on Monday. After the meeting, a press conference was held, where Viktor Orbán was asked about the events in Russia over the weekend, the Prigozhin rebellion and its consequences, according to the report of Új Szó, a Hungarian-language daily published in Bratislava.

The Hungarian Prime Minister said that there is no reason for Hungary to change its foreign policy and its approach to the war between Russia and Ukraine. "Hungary's foreign policy is sovereign, we have no reason to change the course we have followed in the war between Russia and Ukraine," Orbán said, according to the newspaper, adding that they would continue to strive for peace.

"There is a solution to illegal migration, but the European Union does not want to implement it", Orbán said, according to Hungarian News Agency MTI. The Prime Minister said that Hungary's position on migration remains unchanged: if a person submits an application for entry to the EU until the application has been assessed, that person must remain physically outside the European borders.

"If we were to state that only those who have undergone the procedure and have been authorised by a Member State to enter the EU would be allowed to do so, we would already be out of this mess"

– the Hungarian Prime Minister said. In his view, the EU is not willing to take this decisive step, and the European Commission's new migration proposal has not achieved this goal either. He believes, therefore, that the fight on this issue must continue.

The Prime Minister also said that he had visited a number of countries in the Western Balkans region last week and was pleased to hear that the common position remained that the accession process of the Balkan countries to the EU should be accelerated.

Orbán said that we are at a time when much of the attention is focused on Ukraine, but there are other problems as well: attention must also be paid to the Balkans, where there are growing tensions that require a sophisticated, complex solution. The EU's handling of the situation in the Balkans is full of mistakes and has so far been a failure.

The Hungarian Prime Minister believes that such a Balkans policy is needed which gives a clear membership perspective to the peoples living there.

Orbán considers it inadmissible to create the feeling that Ukraine can join the EU before the countries that have been candidates for membership for years.

Balázs Orbán, the Prime Minister's political director, wrote on his Facebook page that the V4 meeting also discussed migration, energy security, the war in Ukraine and the challenges of the green transition.

Viktor Orbán: Serbia releases the three arrested Kosovo policemen

“Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has just informed me that in accordance with the request made at our meeting last week, the Serbian authorities will soon release the three previously arrested Kosovo policemen from custody,” Viktor Orbán tweeted.

“We highly appreciate the step of the President, which he took in a period of serious challenges, and which decision is a clear proof of the strategic cooperation between our countries, and our mutual commitment to the peace and stability of the Balkans,” wrote the Prime Minister. The news was also posted by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó on his Facebook page.

In the early afternoon, Hungarian News Agency MTI reported that according to a statement from the Kraljevo court, the Kosovo police officers detained in central Serbia on 14 June have been released and are now free to defend themselves against the charges made against them. The ruling said that three members of the Kosovo police special unit were charged with the unauthorised production, possession, carrying and trafficking of weapons and explosives. According to a court statement, the court confirmed the charges and ended the 30-day pre-trial detention of the defendants. While Serbia says the Kosovo police officers were detained in central Serbia, Pristina says the men were not detained in Serbian but in Kosovo territory, i.e. they were effectively kidnapped.

At the end of April, local elections were held in several municipalities in northern Kosovo, boycotted by Serbs, who form a large majority in the region, and violent riots broke out when the new Albanian mayors, elected with low turnout, were inaugurated. Hungarian KFOR soldiers were injured and several Kosovo Serbs were detained. Telex has previously written here about why the incident could be seen as a failure of Hungarian foreign policy.

We also reported that last Tuesday, the heads of state and government and ministers of Serbia and Hungary held a joint government meeting in Palic, Vojvodina, where the leaders of the two countries signed a bilateral agreement on issues such as border protection, border crossing, transport and energy security.

Orbán made a short speech at a press conference following the signing ceremony. "The value of your land is influenced by the value of your neighbour's land, so Hungarians have the interest of a happy Serbia," he stressed in a hoarse voice.

Orbán then conveyed to the Serbian head of state a request he had already made behind closed doors, that the three Kosovo Albanian policemen detained in the border area should not be held any longer. He believes that this would help Serbia's international political position.

At the end of the press conference, Serbian state television asked whether Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic was willing to consider Orban's request regarding the Kosovo police. Vucic then dismissed accusations that the three Kosovo Albanian police officers were being held in inhumane conditions, as he said the international media had been stressing, and finally said that he would be willing to negotiate if the detained Serbs were released.