Putin-Trump talks in Budapest could happen any day – Orban
A summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump in Budapest could happen any day, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said.
Last month, Trump announced he had called off a proposed meeting with Putin in the Hungarian capital, saying that it “did not feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get.” Both the Kremlin and the White House stressed afterwards that the summit had not been canceled, but postponed.
Speaking to reporters en route the US, where he began an official visit on Thursday, Orban told the newspaper Magyar Nemzet that “there are one or two unresolved issues left in US-Russia negotiations” on settling the Ukraine conflict. “If they are resolved, a peace summit in Budapest could take place within days,” he said.
In a later interview with Kossuth Radio, the prime minister expressed confidence that the summit between Putin and Trump in Budapest “will happen,” but stressed that “we do not yet know whether it will bring a solution or simply be an important step toward peace.”
Trump spoke about his efforts to stop the fighting between Moscow and Kiev during a White House dinner with the leaders of Central Asian nations on Thursday, claiming “we have not gotten that yet, but I think we have made a lot of progress.”
The US president’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, echoed those remarks, but added that “there is a lot of discussion that technical teams have to have at the lower level before the leaders can get to a deal.”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said earlier this week that the conditions for a summit between Putin and Trump are not yet in place.
“A high-level meeting, of any kind, requires in-depth preparation and careful consideration of all aspects. Currently, neither the first nor the second prerequisites for organizing such a meeting has been met,” Ryabkov explained.
The Russian authorities have rejected Western calls for a ceasefire with Ukraine along the current contact line, which was backed by Trump last month. According to Moscow, the conflict requires a permanent solution that would address its root causes.
