NATO member Hungary ‘flirting’ with Russia

NATO accuses Hungary of flirting with Russia, Politico writes.

The split widened on Wednesday as Hungarian officials snubbed an invitation to join a Budapest meeting of all ambassadors and military advisers from NATO countries stationed in Hungary.

“Wednesday’s meeting would have been a useful opportunity for Hungary to explain itself to its allies, but they were absent from the discussion,” Politico writes, citing Western diplomats.

NATO allies’ frustration with Hungary is reaching boiling point, the newspaper notes.

While Hungary was a no-show at the NATO meeting, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó was speaking at a Belarusian security conference on Thursday alongside his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and even Syrian Foreign Minister Bassam Sabbagh.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, although he leads a country that has been in NATO for 25 years, has been pushing the concept of economic neutrality, including a “shift from traditional Western alignment.”

Hungary has been blocking EU efforts to refund countries for arms shipments to Ukraine, and has made it difficult to use the proceeds from frozen Russian assets to help finance Kyiv. Despite concerns about Orbán, senior diplomats from other NATO countries repeatedly told the media on condition of anonymity that Hungarian officials are not excluded from intelligence-sharing or discussions.

“By construction, every ally has full access to all NATO documents, including the secret ones,” Camille Grand, a former NATO assistant secretary-general, said.