• Tuesday, 24 December 2024

No way Putin would attack a NATO country, Orbán says

No way Putin would attack a NATO country, Orbán says

Berlin, 8 July 2024 (dpa/MIA) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said he thinks it impossible that Russian President Vladimir Putin would attack a NATO country.

"No serious person can speak of Russia intending to attack NATO," Orbán told the German newspaper Bild in an interview released on Monday.

Attacking NATO is completely impossible - not just for Russia, but for anyone in the world - as it is by far the strongest military community, Orbán said.

Orbán said that all NATO countries stand behind their promise of collective security, which means that an attack on one NATO ally is an attack all.

The Russians have a different history and culture, as well as a different understanding of freedom and national sovereignty than the Europeans, said Orbán, who met with Putin in Moscow last week.

"But they are rational, they are hyper-rational," he said.

In response to the objection that the invasion of Ukraine was not rational, he replied: "Irrationality is different from making a mistake in a rational calculation."

Orbán praises Trump as a 'man of peace'

With a view to the US presidential election in November, Orbán said he believed that US President Joe Biden would not re-enter the White House.

He then once again showered praise on Biden's Republican rival, Donald Trump.

"He's a businessman, he's a self-made man, he has a different approach to everything. And I think that's good for world politics," said Orbán to Bild.

"Let's not forget that he is the man of peace," Orbán asserted, saying that Trump did not start a single war during his four years in office.

Orbán was the only prime minister of an EU country to openly declare his support for the Republican even before Trump's election as president in 2016. The two met at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in March.

Photo: EPA