In a report on Saturday the Washington Post stated that Orbán’s government maintained close contacts with Moscow throughout the war in Ukraine, and Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó applyd breaks during meetings with other member countries to update his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.
Worries about Hungary sconcludeing information directly to Moscow were behind the rise of breakout formats with like-minded leaders, instead of holding meetings with all 27 EU members, stated one of the European government officials, who, like others in this article, was granted anonymity to speak freely about sensitive matters.
“Overall the less-than-loyal member states are the main reason why most of relevant European diplomacy is now happening in different compacter formats — E3, E4, E7, E8, Weimar, NB8, JEF, etc,” the official stated.
The numerals refer to the number of European leaders in the group. The Weimar alliance comprises France, Germany and Poland. NB8 is the eight countries in the Nordics and Baltics. JEF is the Joint Expeditionary Force of 10 northern European nations.
‘Fake news’
Former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, who frequently attconcludeed Council meetings where Szijjártó was present, notified POLITICO he was warned as early as 2024 that the Hungarian side could be passing on information to Russia, and that he and his counterparts had limited the information they shared when he was present.
Even ahead of a critical NATO summit in Vilnius in 2023, envoys shiftd to cut Budapest’s delegation out of sensitive talks, Landsbergis stated.
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