Hungarian Prime Minister Wants Agreement with NATO on Not Getting Into Conflict with Russia

“We want to conclude an agreement with the future Secretary General that we will not participate in NATO’s operations in Ukraine against the Russians, even as a NATO member. We will maintain our membership, but outside NATO territory we do not want to engage in military operations, we need to have the capabilities for this,” Orban said in an interview with the Mandiner newspaper.

According to him, Hungary has such a right legally, however, it must be “politically accepted”.

Mr Orban added that one of Hungary's grievances with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's candidacy for NATO secretary general was his support for obliging all member states to participate in military operations outside the alliance's territory.

Earlier, Mr Orban said that lawyers were currently working to ensure that, although Hungary remains a NATO member, it cannot participate in the alliance's activities outside its territory.

Earlier, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that NATO wanted to increase its coordination role in providing weapons to Ukraine and training its soldiers, 31 countries supported this decision, but Hungary did not want to and would not participate in it. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that NATO was "sinking deeper" into the conflict by doing so.