Orban Heads to White House to Pitch Trump–Putin Summit

By Staff, Agencies

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is expected to visit the White House on Friday, where he will seek support for hosting a proposed summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of efforts he claims could help end the Ukraine conflict.

Orban has suggested Budapest as the venue for the meeting. His advisors say he will also request an exemption from US sanctions targeting Russian energy supplies, amid Hungary’s ongoing reliance on Russian gas.

The discussions will be a key test of Trump’s stated harder approach toward Moscow, after he publicly accused Putin of stalling negotiations to end the conflict.

However, Insiders say Orban’s key goal is a Trump visit to Hungary before April’s elections to boost his standing against a rising opposition.

“Orban wants Trump to come to Budapest before the elections,” said a source from a Hungarian government-linked foreign policy institution. “This is a top priority. They will discuss the Russian gas issue, but the thing Orban cares about the most is the elections.”

Political analyst Zsuzsanna Vegh of the German Marshall Fund said such a visit would be “a major political favor” for Orban, noting that Trump has so far avoided attending major international events in Budapest, including high-profile CPAC gatherings.

Often criticized for his closeness to Moscow, Orban has kept strong ties with Trump and worked to build a global right-wing network. Trump’s circle has praised Hungary as a “conservative Disneyland.”

Gergely Gulyas, Orban's chief of staff, said Friday’s meeting was an opportunity for both leaders “to determine the roadmap that could lead to a US-Russian meeting and, through that, to a Russian-Ukrainian peace agreement.”

A previous attempt to forge such talks reportedly collapsed after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took a firm position during discussions with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Hungary is pushing to form a Ukraine-skeptic alliance within the European Union, seeking alignment with Czechia and Slovakia ahead of key European summits, according to a senior political advisor to Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

A POLITICO report said the plan seeks to unite Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Czech politician Andrej Babis, and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico to coordinate Ukraine policy and strategize before EU meetings, potentially challenging the bloc’s unity on Ukraine aid.

Balazs Orban told POLITICO a coordinated bloc “will come” and grow more visible, comparing it to the Visegrad alliance that opposed EU migrant relocation plans.