BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Saturday that Russia’s leadership is “hyper rational” and that Ukraine will never be able to realize its hopes of becoming a member of the European Union or NATO.
Orban, a nationalist in power since 2010, made the comments during a speech in which he predicted a shift in global power from the “irrational” West to Asia and Russia.
“In the coming long decades, perhaps centuries, Asia will be the dominant center of the world,” Orban said, naming China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia as the world’s future great powers.
“And we Westerners also pushed the Russians into this bloc,” he said in the televised speech before ethnic Hungarians at a festival in the town of Baile Tusnad in neighboring Romania.
Orbán, whose country currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, differs sharply from the rest of the bloc in seeking warmer ties with Beijing and Moscow, and angered some EU leaders when he made surprise visits to Kiev, Moscow and Beijing this month for talks on war in Ukraine.
He said that in contrast to the “weakness” of the West, Russia’s position in world affairs was rational and predictable, saying the country had demonstrated economic flexibility in adapting to Western sanctions since it invaded Crimea in 2014.
Orban, whose own government has passed a series of anti-LGBT measures, said Russia has gained influence in many parts of the world by cracking down on LGBTQ+ rights.
“Russian soft power’s strongest international appeal is its opposition to LGBTQ people,” he said.
He added that Ukraine would never become a member of the EU or NATO because “we Europeans don’t have enough money for that.”
“The EU needs to abandon its identity as a political project and become an economic and defense project”, added Orbán.
The EU began accession talks with Ukraine late last month, although the country has a long and difficult road ahead before it can join the bloc.
A statement at the end of a NATO summit this month said the alliance would support Ukraine on “its irreversible path” towards membership.
(Reporting by Anita Komuves; Editing by Helen Popper)
