Hungary will not support Ukraine and will not block NATO decisions

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that he had agreed with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that Hungary would not block decisions in the Alliance regarding Kyiv, but it would not participate in supporting Ukraine, either. 

Orbán said during a press conference with the NATO Secretary General in Budapest that at the meeting, they reviewed relations between Hungary and NATO. 

The Hungarian Prime Minister said that "everyone knows that Hungary's position on the Russian-Ukrainian war differs from that of most NATO states." But he thanked the NATO secretary general for always letting Budapest have its own, different opinion.

Quote: "Hungary has made it clear that it does not intend to block any decisions in NATO that may differ from our, as we believe, analysis of the situation. What we focused on at today's meeting is that any operations outside (NATO) should be voluntary, and Hungary was given the guarantees it requires," Orbán said. 

He added that such an agreement meets the request of the Hungarian society, which in the European Parliament elections "gave the government a mandate not to participate in the war."

The NATO Secretary General, for his part, said that he and Orbán "approved the opportunity for Hungary not to participate in NATO support for Ukraine", which the Alliance plans to provide in the future. Orbán said Hungary would not participate in these NATO efforts, and Stoltenberg "accepted that position." 

"None of the Hungarian staff will participate in this activity, and no Hungarian finances will be used to support it. At the same time, the prime minister stressed that Hungary would not oppose these efforts and would allow other allies to move forward," Stoltenberg said.

In May, Orbán said his country was working to "reconsider" its NATO membership status, which would allow it to potentially avoid participating in future operations outside the Alliance and increase support for Ukraine from NATO.