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Relations between the US and Hungary are in ‘a new golden age’, says Orbán – Europe live
Relations between the US and Hungary are in ‘a new golden age’, Orbán says
Orbán said they “reviewed and overviewed” their bilateral relationships as there is a “new” US president, who the Hungarian leader says he is also having to adapt to.
A new golden age has set upon us concerning the relationship between the United States and Hungary.
We operate with understatements in the Hungarian language and in Hungarian politics …
I cannot remember – although for 30 odd years I have been present in politics – when the last time it was that the relationships between the two nations were at such a high level, so balanced and so friendly. So my heartfelt thanks go to President Trump.
Orbán said 17 US “investments” have “been decided upon” in Hungary since last January, a decades-long record he said, adding that he is grateful for Hungarians being allowed to travel to the US without a visa.
Key events
Hungary backs US peace efforts in Ukraine, Orbán says
Orbán said Hungary will “continue to support the peace efforts” the US is leading on to bring an end to the war in Ukraine.
“If Donald Trump had been the president of the United States this war wouldn’t have broken out,” he told journalists.
“And if he were not the president now then we would not even stand a chance to put an end to the war with peace.”
Orbán added that Hungary “remains ready” to provide a venue for a peace summit in Budapest, if this is possible.
Hungary has been at odds with other western countries over Orbán’s maintenance of ties to Russia and refusal to send arms to Ukraine.
Hungary has pushed back against plans by the European Commission to phase out the EU’s imports of all Russian gas and LNG by the end of 2027, deepening a rift with Brussels over relations with Moscow.
Relations between the US and Hungary are in ‘a new golden age’, Orbán says
Orbán said they “reviewed and overviewed” their bilateral relationships as there is a “new” US president, who the Hungarian leader says he is also having to adapt to.
A new golden age has set upon us concerning the relationship between the United States and Hungary.
We operate with understatements in the Hungarian language and in Hungarian politics …
I cannot remember – although for 30 odd years I have been present in politics – when the last time it was that the relationships between the two nations were at such a high level, so balanced and so friendly. So my heartfelt thanks go to President Trump.
Orbán said 17 US “investments” have “been decided upon” in Hungary since last January, a decades-long record he said, adding that he is grateful for Hungarians being allowed to travel to the US without a visa.
He started off by saying himself and Rubio had a “friendly and very serious” discussion.
The Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán is now making some remarks.
Back to Budapest now. Marco Rubio and the Hungarian foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, appear to be signing an agreement to facilitate cooperation on a civilian nuclear programme.
EU’s deportations plan risks ICE-style enforcement, rights groups warn
We’ll give you any key lines from the press conference. In the meantime, our European community affairs correspondent, Ashifa Kassam, has reported on the EU’s proposed deportation law that rights groups warn could intensify already widespread racial profiling across the continent. Here is an extract from her story:
More than 70 rights organisations have called on the EU to reject a proposal aimed at increasing the deportation of undocumented people, warning that it risks turning everyday spaces, public services and community interactions into tools of ICE-style immigration enforcement.
Last March, the European Commission laid out its proposal to increase deportations of people with no legal right to stay in the EU, including potentially sending them to offshore centres in non-EU countries.
The draft regulation on enforcement, which still needs to be agreed on by MEPs, comes after the far right made gains in the 2024 European parliament elections.
In a joint statement published on Monday, 75 rights organisations from across Europe said that the plans, if approved, could expand and normalise immigration raids and surveillance measures across the continent while also intensifying racial profiling.
The plans “would consolidate a punitive system, fuelled by far-right rhetoric and based on racialised suspicion, denunciation, detention and deportation,” the statement said. “Europe knows from its own history where systems of surveillance, scapegoating and control can lead.”
Rubio-Orbán press conference due to begin shortly
The press conference between the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, in Budapest is expected to start shortly:
In other news, the Kremlin has dismissed assessments from five European countries that concluded that the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was killed using a poison developed from a dart frog toxin administered by the Russian state two years ago.
The assessment was made from the foreign ministries of the UK, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands after analysis of material samples found on Navalny’s body.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters this morning that Moscow did not accept what he claimed were false accusations.
“Naturally, we do not accept such accusations. We disagree with them. We consider them biased and unfounded. And, in fact, we strongly reject them,” said Peskov.
The European countries said they were reporting Russia to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
In February 2024, Navalny, who was a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in a remote Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges that were widely seen as politically motivated.
You can see how much individual Nato countries spent on defence last year in this document. Every country in the alliance met the target of spending at least 2% of their GDP on defence.
Members are now committed to spending 3.5% on core defence and 1.5% of GDP to wider resilience and security measures, such as critical infrastructure, civil preparedness and the defence industrial base, by 2035.
Germany’s foreign minister says French defence spending is insufficient
In a radio interview with broadcaster Deutschlandfunk this morning, Germany’s foreign minister Johann Wadephul suggested that France needs to boost its defence spending.
“He repeatedly and correctly refers to our pursuit of European sovereignty,” Wadephul said of French President Emmanuel Macron. “Anyone who talks about it needs to act accordingly in their own country.”
Despite Nato member states last year committing to spend 5% of GDP on defence and security by 2035, Wadephul said progress has been too slow.
“Unfortunately, efforts in the French Republic have also been insufficient to achieve this so far,” Wadephul said. “France, too, needs to do what we are doing here with difficult discussions.”
After years of missing its Nato spending targets, Germany has unleashed hundreds of billions of euros on rearmament in the wake of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Germany last year exempted most defence spending from constitutionally enshrined debt limits and current budgets foresee Berlin spending more than €50bn on defence between 2025 and 2029.
Under financial pressure, France has less room for manoeuvre with a huge debt burden as a proportion of GDP.
Marco Rubio arrives in Budapest to meet Viktor Orbán and Hungarian foreign minister
We have some images come through from the newswires of Marco Rubio in Budapest:
Hungary’s 12 April election is set to be one of the year’s most consequential in the EU. Voters will choose a new 199-seat national assembly under the country’s mixed electoral system, with Viktor Orbán facing his biggest electoral challenge after 16 years of uninterrupted power.
Under Orbán, Hungary has repeatedly sought to block EU sanctions against Russia, has vetoed the release of billions of euros in funds to reimburse other EU countries providing military aid to Ukraine and has used Budapest’s veto ability in Brussels as a way to prolong urgent EU decisions.
The far-right Hungarian leader has long been at odds with the EU, which has frozen billions in funding to Budapest over concerns he has dismantled democratic institutions, eroded judicial independence and overseen widespread alleged corruption.
In a speech on Saturday, Orbán compared the EU to the repressive Soviet regime that dominated Hungary for over 40 years last century. His message doesn’t seem to be cutting through to voters in the way he may hope though. Polls have suggested Orbán and his Fidesz party are trailing behind Péter Magyar’s opposition Tisza party.
Magyar, a former member of Fidesz, has vowed to root out corruption and bring in term limits for future leaders. He has focused on issues such as low wages and rapidly rising living costs that have made Hungary one of the poorest countries in the EU.
On Sunday, Magyar pointed to meetings he held with numerous European leaders at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend, and said he would put an end to Hungary “drifting out of the European Union” as was the case under Orbán.
EU foreign policy chief criticises ‘fashionable euro-bashing’ by US
Patrick Wintour
The EU’s foreign policy chief has denied claims levelled by the US that Europe is facing civilisational erasure, rejecting what she condemned as “fashionable euro-bashing” by Washington.
Kaja Kallas also said the US was discovering that it could not settle the war in Ukraine without Europe’s involvement and consent.
Her remarks capped a difficult three-day Munich Security Conference attended by world leaders and security officials in which the health of the transatlantic alliance, a stronger European pillar inside Nato, and the Ukraine peace talks dominated discussions.
In his speech on Saturday, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, laced a more diplomatic tone with a firm message that Washington would only work alongside Europe if it changed to accommodate US leadership on mass migration, free trade and greater European defence spending.
Kallas, speaking on the last day of the conference, suggested some of Rubio’s remarks were directed at a domestic audience.
“Euro-bashing” was now “very fashionable” despite all “the good things that Europe actually has to offer,” Kallas said. “When I travel around the world, I see countries that look up to us because we represent values that are still highly regarded.
“Contrary to what some may say, woke, decadent Europe is not facing civilisational erasure. In fact, people still want to join our club, and not just fellow Europeans. In Canada, I was told over 40% of Canadians have an interest in joining the EU.”
You can read the full story here:
Marco Rubio to meet Viktor Orbán in Budapest ahead of Hungary elections
Good morning and welcome to our Europe live blog. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is in Hungary today as he continues his tour of key American allies in central Europe after attending the Munich Security Conference.
Rubio is expected to have morning talks with Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, in Budapest, before meeting the country’s embattled prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who has been lagging in polls ahead of crucial elections on 12 April. There is expected to be a press conference at around 11am local time.
Rubio, who visited Slovakia on a diplomatic visit yesterday, is expected to discuss bilateral relations with Orbán as he tries to bolster ties with US allies in the region.
The secretary of state is also reportedly pushing to shore up energy agreements with both Slovakia and Hungary, with Orbán being a particularly vocal critic of the EU’s green policies. Rubio and Orbán plan to sign a civilian-nuclear cooperation agreement later, according to the Associated Press.
The US president, Donald Trump, threw his support behind Orbán, the EU’s longest-serving leader, earlier this month, saying he had his “complete and total endorsement for re-election”. Orbán has cultivated a strong personal rapport with Trump over the years, including on their shared hard-line immigration policies.
Rubio’s charm offensive follows on from him striking a lighter tone at this year’s MSC in comparison to JD Vance’s aggressive speech last time round, in which the vice-president castigated Europe for its policies on migration and free speech. Instead, Rubio talked of an “intertwined destiny” for the US and Europe, describing America as “a child of Europe, before making a highly conditional offer of a new partnership.
Stick with us as we bring you the latest news from around Europe.
