The Hungarian president will not attend the meeting in the so-called Bucharest Nine format, which will be held on Tuesday in Riga (Latvia). Since Budapest is skipping the summit in such a diplomatic format, the Eastern European allies are discussing the issue of excluding Budapest from the club. Writes UNN with reference to Reuters and the Financial Times.
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Hungarian President Tamas Shayok will not attend the summit of the Bucharest Nine, a group of Eastern European NATO member countries, in Riga. "Hungary will be represented by the Ambassador to Latvia," the Office of the President of Latvia said.
Hungary is at a stage of disagreement with NATO members on the eastern flank, primarily because of its consistently pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian position. The government of Viktor Orban, who is considered Russia's Trojan horse in the West, has consistently blocked aid to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia. The member countries of the Bucharest Nine, which unites Eastern European allies in NATO and the EU, discussed the possibility of excluding Hungary from future meetings of this geographical defense club, writes FT.
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The "Group of 9", created in 2015, includes Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia - former members of the Soviet Union or the Warsaw Pact, and now NATO and EU countries. Their leaders, ministers of foreign Affairs and Defense regularly meet at the Bucharest Nine Group summits to coordinate their approaches to security policy, in particular to the defense of the eastern borders.
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The B9 leaders are meeting in Riga on Tuesday, June 11. As of today, it is known that Hungary refuses to approve the draft declaration, on which the rest of the countries have agreed.
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The discussion on excluding Budapest from the B9 is "very serious," one official told the FT, adding that "this is probably the last time we will meet in this format.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will attend the summit in Riga. The official will visit Budapest the next day "to discuss the issue of Hungary's withdrawal from the NATO mission in Ukraine," Prime Minister Viktor Orban told Hungarian state media.