EU countries have complained that Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is negotiating with the Russian and Chinese leaders, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, as well as Donald Trump without their consent.
Orbán has also met with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy and is said to be quietly negotiating his own ceasefire plan without consulting either the Biden administration or other EU countries. Hungary currently holds the presidency of the Council of the EU.
Orbán “wants to be the Trump guy in Europe if Trump wins the election so that then he can be … the one who can open the White House door for Europe”, a European Union diplomat told the Guardian.
Hungary will continue to hold the presidency of the Council of the EU through the end of the year, coinciding with a period when Trump could be president-elect. The diplomat added:
So for the last month before the swearing in he can be the European person in Washington making deals for everyone.
“There is a longstanding pattern of Orbán working with enemies of the western alliance system,” said Dalibor Rohac, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute thinktank in Washington. “It certainly does not serve the Hungarian interest or Nato interest.”
He might find a receptive audience in Mar-a-Lago but they are far from a consensus on the Republican side [when it comes to Orbán]. Yesterday [Senate minority leader Mitch] McConnell delivered a very powerful speech in the Senate where he dismissed the Hungarian PM for his meeting with Putin.
Updated at 13.48 EDT
The White House has been asked about reports that Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is set to meet with Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago today.
“I haven’t heard directly from anybody about this meeting, I’ve heard indirectly about it as many of you have,” said Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser.
It certainly isn’t coordinated with the Ukrainians. They’ve indicated that they have great misgivings about any effort to negotiate some kind of fake peace with Russia without the Ukrainians being a part of that effort.
The Biden administration’s position is nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. So whatever adventurism is being undertaken without Ukraine’s consent or support is not something that’s consistent with our policy.
Updated at 13.29 EDT
Canada expects to increase its defence spending to the Nato target of 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2032, according to its prime minister, Justin Trudeau.
Trudeau, speaking to reporters at the Nato summit, said:
We have built in a regular cycle of review in Canada’s defence, including a new defence policy update in 2028. Through that process, we will continue to explore opportunities that will further increase defense spending.
Canada, which has an annual defence budget of around C$31bn (£17.6n) has faced mounting pressure to increase its military spending as it continues to fall short of the Nato target.
Updated at 13.19 EDT
Summary of the day so far
I will shortly be handing over the Nato summit live blog to my US colleagues, but first, here is a summary of the day so far:
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Ukraine’s top presidential aide on Thursday called for an end to restrictions imposed on the use of allied-supplied weapons against targets deep inside Russia, saying it would be a “gamechanger” in fighting Moscow’s occupation. Andriy Yermak, speaking at a public forum on the final day of the 2024 Nato summit, did not name any specific country’s restrictions but his comment came days after the White House reaffirmed a prohibition on Ukraine conducting strikes deep inside Russia with US-supplied arms.
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Hungary does not want, and will not support, Nato becoming an “anti-China” bloc, foreign minister Peter Szijjarto told Hungary’s state television while in Washington DC on Thursday. Speaking on the sidelines of a Nato summit, Szijjarto also said Ukraine’s admission to the alliance would weaken unity within the group
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US president, Joe Biden, is expected to announce a new $225m aid package for Ukraine, including an additional Patriot missile system to bolster its air defences, reports the Associated Press (AP). Two US officials said the announcement is expected to be made during Biden’s meeting on Thursday with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The officials spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity to provide details of the aid before the public announcement.
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Biden is scheduled to face journalists at a news conference marking the end of Nato’s 75th anniversary summit at 6.30pm EDT. The US president’s press conference, which will include questions from reporters, is certain to be scrutinised for any signs of slip-ups.
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Biden, and his Nato counterparts were set on Thursday to hold talks with Asia-Pacific leaders and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy amid concerns about growing support from China and North Korea for the Russian invasion. The flurry of final events at the Nato summit come a day after Nato labeled China a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war against Ukraine. China in turn accused Nato of seeking security at the expense of others and warned the military alliance not to bring the same “chaos” to Asia.
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Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Thursday that any possibility of a direct confrontation between Russia and Nato was “worrying”. He added: “Any steps that could lead to this outcome should be consciously avoided.”
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Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, will fly to Mar-a-Lago on Thursday to meet with Donald Trump, according to two sources with knowledge of the meeting. Orbán has enraged his Nato allies by meeting with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping en route to the alliance’s summit in Washington DC. He has also met with Zelenskiy in Kyiv, and is said to be quietly negotiating his own ceasefire plan without consulting either the Biden administration or other EU countries.
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Biden has appeared to back Keir Starmer’s ambition for the UK having a closer relationship with the EU as the leaders held their first bilateral talks at the White House on Wednesday evening. The US president called the US and the UK the “best of allies” as he met the new prime minister in the Oval Office, describing the UK as the “knot” that tied the transatlantic relationship together.
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Starmer defended Biden’s leadership credentials amid questions about the US president’s cognitive health, after meeting the president for their first bilateral talks. Starmer told the BBC that Biden had been “across all the detail”.
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France, Germany, Italy and Poland signed a letter of intent on Thursday to develop ground-launched cruise missiles with a range beyond 500km (310 miles), aiming to fill what they say is a gap in European arsenals exposed by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Speaking on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Washington DC after the signing ceremony, French defence minister Sébastien Lecornu said the new missile was meant to serve as a deterrent.
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Norway will donate 1bn Norwegian kroner ($92.69m) in support to Ukraine for its air defence, prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre said at the Nato summit on Thursday. The donation comes a day after Norway announced it would give six F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine to help it in defence efforts against Russian air attacks.
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Russia will act to counter the planned US deployment of long-range missiles in Germany, the Kremlin said on Thursday, as it regarded the Nato military alliance’s actions as a serious threat to Russia’s national security.
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Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz said that France remained a key partner on the international stage as leader Emmanuel Macron struggles to build a coalition government after elections. “France will be on the international agenda a big partner, a strong partner of all of us, and especially a partner for Germany,” Scholz said at the Nato summit on Thursday.
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Romania, Bulgaria and Greece signed a deal on Thursday to enable swift cross-border movement of troops and weapons to Nato’s eastern flank, Romania’s defence ministry said. The planned harmonised military mobility corridor between the three Nato and EU states was one of two such mobility corridors agreed on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Washington DC.
Updated at 13.01 EDT
US president, Joe Biden, is expected to announce a new $225m aid package for Ukraine, including an additional Patriot missile system to bolster its air defences, reports the Associated Press (AP).
Two US officials said the announcement is expected to be made during Biden’s meeting on Thursday with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The officials spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity to provide details of the aid before the public announcement.
The Patriot air defence system, the second the US has provided to Ukraine, is one of several Biden announced this week at the Nato summit and is part of a swell of pledges to get weapons to Ukraine to help it fend off Russian attacks.
Updated at 12.29 EDT
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, defended Joe Biden’s leadership credentials amid questions about the US president’s cognitive health, which have intensified since criticism of his performance in a TV debate against Donald Trump last month.
Starmer who met the president for their first bilateral talks at the White House on Wednesday as Nato leaders gathered in Washington DC to discuss the challenges facing the bloc, said Biden had been “across all the detail”.
According to the PA news agency, Starmer told broadcasters their one-to-one discussions had happened “at pace” and Biden seemed “on really good form”.
“We were billed for 45 minutes, we went on for the best part of an hour,” he said. “He was absolutely across all the detail. We were going at pace through a number of issues.”
Asked by a reporter whether the president was senile, Starmer told the BBC:
No … he’s shown incredible leadership. If there’s one thing that came out of the council session yesterday it was a clear understanding by everybody here that we’re faced with more threats now than we’ve faced for many years, and that we need the resolve of Nato.
President Biden has led through some of the most challenging issues, actually, that we’re facing globally.”
Starmer’s latest comments come after the two leaders spoke on the sidelines of the Nato summit as the prime minister seeks to strengthen what he called the “very special relationship” between the UK and US.
Meanwhile, Biden earlier appeared to back Starmer’s push for the UK to forge closer defence ties with Europe, as he called the UK the “transatlantic knot”.
The PA news agency reports that Starmer wants an ambitious new UK-EU security pact to strengthen cooperation and seeks closer work on defence with key allies such as France and Germany. Biden said: “I kind of see you guys as the knot tying the transatlantic alliance together, the closer you are with Europe. We know where you are, you know where we are.”
Updated at 12.15 EDT
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, will fly to Mar-a-Lago on Thursday to meet with Donald Trump, according to two sources with knowledge of the meeting.
Orbán has enraged his Nato allies by meeting with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping en route to the alliance’s summit in Washington DC. He has also met with Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, and is said to be quietly negotiating his own ceasefire plan without consulting either the Biden administration or other EU countries.
The two men will meet at Mar-a-Lago at 7pm, a source close to Trump said. Orban’s 606 Dassault Falcon jet was one of the several international planes that flew into Joint Base Andrews on Tuesday to attend the 2024 Nato summit. As of 10.30am eastern time on Thursday, the Hungarian military plane was still parked in Maryland.
Orbán did not discuss details of his negotiations with Putin or Xi with the Biden administration. Three sources briefed on the summit preparations said that he did not ask for a bilateral meeting with Joe Biden. EU countries have complained that Orbán is negotiating without their consent as Hungary currently holds the presidency of the European Council.
Orbán and his campaign advisers have fully backed Trump for re-election in November. His foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, told Reuters: “We see a chance for peace if President Trump is winning. We see a chance for good Hungary-US relationships if President Trump is winning.”
You can read the full piece by Flora Garamvolgyi, Andrew Roth and Hugo Lowell here:
Updated at 12.03 EDT
My colleague in the US, Robert Tait has written about how Joe Biden’s Nato speech later poses a major test for his campaign as calls mount for him to step down. He writes:
The press conference, which will include questions from reporters, is certain to be scrutinised minutely for any signs of verbal slip-up or mental frailty resembling those Biden displayed in the debate.
The event is the kind of unscripted set piece that Biden’s staff stand accused of shielding him from, and any repeat of the calamitous debate display could turn the steady trickle of public calls for Biden to stand aside into a flood.
Some of Biden’s most loyal acolytes at the top of the Democratic party have issued less than full-throated statements of support in recent days.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, who has repeated the mantra “I’m for Joe” throughout the crisis, was reported to have signalled openness to having the president replaced at the top of the presidential ticket.
Axios reported that Schumer had been taking close account of the feelings of party donors and fellow senators in the 12 days since Biden’s meltdown in the 27 June debate, when he plunged the viability of his candidacy into doubt by abjectly failing to defend his own policies or counter Trump’s lies.
“As I have made clear repeatedly publicly and privately, I support President Biden and remain committed to ensuring Donald Trump is defeated in November,” Schumer said, in comments that fell short of a ringing endorsement. On Wednesday, Peter Welch of Vermont became the first Democratic senator to publicly tell Biden to step aside. Nine members of the House of Representatives have already done so.
“He saved us from Donald Trump once and wants to do it again. But he needs to reassess whether he is the best candidate to do so. In my view, he is not,” Welch wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece.
You can read the full piece here:
Updated at 11.51 EDT
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