PM Orbán at NATO summit: Russia not strong enough, not a real threat to us
“I think Russia is not strong enough to represent a real threat to us. We are far stronger,” Hungary’s PM Orbán said in The Hague today ahead of attending the second day of the NATO summit.
Not security but economic threats, says Orbán
According to the Anadolu News Agency, PM Orbán called for a revision of the EU’s budget regulation framework, warning that no member state would be able to meet NATO’s 5% of GDP defense spending target under the current rules. Speaking ahead of NATO leaders meeting in The Hague, Orbán said the 5% target is reachable though it would not be easy.
“It’s not easy, but the whole calculation of budget regulation of European Union must be changed,” he told reporters. “If we keep the regulation as it is, nobody in the European Union is able to fulfill 5%. So we have to recalculate everything in a different method.” Orbán said the biggest threat Europe faces today is not military, but economic. “The real threat is not security wise, it’s economic and losing our competitiveness on the global trade.”
Russia is not strong enough
“I think Russia is not strong enough to represent a real threat to us. We are far stronger,” he added. On Ukraine, he said: “NATO has no business in Ukraine. Ukraine is not member of NATO, neither Russia. My job is to keep it as it is.”
US president ‘man of common sense’
According to the Hungarian News Agency (MTI), international order is based on common sense, and the US president is “a man of common sense, as it was shown in the way he handled the conflict between Israel and Iran,” Orbán said. Ahead of attending the second day of the NATO summit, Orbán added that as a result of Donald Trump’s work, “new wars will be shorter and old wars will run out of fuel”.
Responding to a question, Orbán said the “real threat for Europe is not a security one. The greatest threat Europe is facing right now is losing its competitiveness.” Although the closing declarations of NATO summits describe Russia as a threat, “Russia is no substantial threat. We are much stronger,” Orbán said, responding to another question.
EU was aimed to bring peace, development
The European Union was set up to bring peace and development to its members and “it is not fair to expect any member to take the risk of war,” Orbán said on platform X in response to a remark by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky had called it unfair of Hungary not to support Ukraine’s EU accession.
In his post, Orbán said that co-opting a country at war with Russia “would immediately embroil the EU in a direct conflict … it is unfair to expect any EU member to take that risk.”
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