(MENAFN- Live Mint) Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday, the latest in a diplomatic bid to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine that's made little progress so far.
Earlier this week, Orban met with US President-elect Donald trump and held a phone call with Russia's Vladimir Putin to discuss the war on Ukraine. His efforts have met with growing exasperation from other European Union nations as Hungary holds the EU's rotating presidency through the end of the year.
Erdogan and Orban, both leaders of NATO-member countries, have been trying to cast themselves as intermediaries in the nearly three-year-long conflict, touting close ties to Putin that have upset the US and other European countries.
The two also have a rapport with the incoming US president and see it as an opportunity to put their fraught relations with Washington on better footing after the January inauguration.
During the call with the Russian leader, Orban floated the possibility of a ceasefire over the Christmas period as well as a prisoner swap between Moscow and Kyiv. The effort, however, appeared to be rejected by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
“We made a proposal for a Christmas ceasefire and a large-scale prisoner exchange,” Orban said on Facebook late Wednesday.“How sad that today President Zelenskiy unequivocally rejected it.”
Orban has used his country's EU presidency, which it assumed in July, for a flurry of diplomatic activity on Ukraine, including uncoordinated meetings with Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump that have left EU and NATO allies as well as Zelenskiy's administration seething.
Zelenskiy, in a post on X on Wednesday, accused Orban of trying to boost his personal image at the expense of Western unity.
Hungary has repeatedly sought to prevent the EU from imposing new sanctions against Russia since the Kremlin started its full-scale invasion in February 2022, while also opposing military aid for Kyiv.
Ankara has refrained from joining the US-led sanctions on Russia but has also provided military support to Ukraine.“We've been trying to extinguish the fire as opposed to pouring fuel on it, and we'll continue to maintain this stance,” Erdogan said earlier this week.
Erdogan and Orban are scheduled to meet at 2 p.m.. Ankara time on Thursday. Erdogan will also meet with Hungarian President Tamas Sulyok.
Syria also is likely to be on the agenda of the meeting with Orban, following the downfall of Bashar al-Assad's regime. Hungary has sought guarantees for the protection of the Christian minority, which make up about 10% of the country's roughly 24 million people - half of which are displaced internally or have taken refugee in neighboring states.
Turkey, meanwhile, stands to be one of the biggest winners from Assad's sudden fall, able to wield influence over the opposition forces. Some three million Syrian migrants live in Turkey.
With assistance from Kateryna Chursina and Sam Dagher.
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