Hungary Agrees Not to Block NATO Decisions on Ukraine but Will Withhold Support, Says Orbán

The Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, announced that he has reached an agreement with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that Hungary will not block decisions within the Alliance regarding Kyiv, but will not participate in support for Ukraine.

Orbán made this statement at a press conference with the NATO Secretary General in Budapest on Wednesday.

Hungarian Prime Minister said that they reviewed relations between Hungary and NATO at the meeting.

According to the Hungarian Prime Minister, “it is well known that Hungary’s position on the Russian-Ukrainian war differs from the position of most NATO countries.” However, he thanked the NATO Secretary General for always “allowing” Budapest to express its different opinion.

“Hungary has made it clear that it has no intention of blocking any decisions within NATO that may differ from our analysis of the situation. What we focused on in today’s meeting… is that any operations outside (NATO) must be voluntary, and Hungary has been given the guarantees it demands,” Orbán said.

He added that such an agreement corresponds to the request of Hungarian society, which in the elections to the European Parliament “mandated the government not to participate in the war.”

The NATO Secretary General said that he and Orbán “approved the modalities for Hungary not to participate in supporting NATO for Ukraine”, which the Alliance plans to provide in the future. Orbán said that Hungary will not participate in these NATO efforts, and Stoltenberg “accepted this position.”

“No Hungarian personnel will take part in these activities and no Hungarian funds will be used to support them. At the same time, the Prime Minister has assured me that Hungary will not oppose these efforts, enabling other Allies to move forward,” Stoltenberg said.

In May, Orbán stated that his country is working on “reconsidering” its NATO membership status to potentially allow it to avoid participation in future operations outside the Alliance and increased support for Ukraine from NATO.