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ORBÁN: OTS 'FORUM OF PEACE'

Hungary sees the Organisation of Turkic States as a "forum of peace" when it comes to the war in Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at a summit of the Turkic grouping in Samarkand on Friday.
 

Hungary, which has observer status in the organisation, is the only remaining eastern people in Europe, and being a neighbour of Ukraine, the effects of the war on the country are “huge and immediate”, Orbán said in his address. “More than a million refugees have entered the country, inflation is sky-high and we’ve never seen food and energy prices as high as they are now,” he said.
Hungary’s aim is for a ceasefire to be declared in Ukraine and for peace talks to get under way as soon as possible, he said. This is also the only way to overcome the energy crisis, he added. The biggest problem is that in Europe the voices of those who want peace is nowhere near as loud as the voices of those who want to heighten tensions, Orbán said. The European Union is an “escalation spiral” and international organisations are becoming increasingly politicised, limiting the possibility for meaningful dialogue based on common sense, he added. Orbán also said the EU’s sanctions had hurt Europe more than Russia, weakening the European economy.