Taoiseach Simon Harris has dismissed the attempt by Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, to get the European Union to reverse its military backing for Ukraine and instead try to broker talks between Russia and the country it invaded in 2022.
Mr Orban, whose country holds the rotating European Union presidency, has touted a new plan following his recent trips to Beijing and Moscow and talks with US presidential election favourite, Donald Trump.
Speaking to reporters on the fringes of the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, Mr Harris said the Hungarian prime minister “has no role whatsoever” in speaking for the European Council of national leaders.
“He didn’t speak for us when he visited Moscow. He didn’t speak for us when he visited China. I look forward to working with him on issues related to the [EU] presidency… but not in relation to foreign policy.”
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The Taoiseach said the EU council was “absolutely united” in its support for Ukraine, which is continuing to fight the Russian invasion.
[ EU’s Michel criticises Orban over Trump peace plan letterOpens in new window ]
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is among the 45 heads of state at the EPC, which is being hosted by Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, on the opulent Blenheim estate where Winston Churchill was born.
Mr Harris sidestepped a question about the atmosphere in the room among EPC leaders, as Mr Zelenskiy and Mr Orban came face to face for the first time since Hungary’s leader effectively called for Ukraine to sue for peace against Russia.
The Taoiseach confirmed, however, that the Irish Government “stands ready to play a more active role” in providing non-military support to Ukraine, which he intends to visit in September at the invitation of Mr Zelenskiy.
“I really want to do more on the humanitarian side,” said the Taoiseach, suggesting that the State’s involvement could be themed around the issue of Ukrainian children who are abducted and taken to Russia. “We need these children to stop being snatched,” he said.
The Taoiseach also suggested the Republic could act as a “bridge over the Atlantic” between the European Union and the US if Mr Trump was re-elected president in November.
“Any US president might or might not want to use [that bridge]. We stand ready to work with whoever it is,” he said.
Mr Harris expressed optimism that the EPC summit would help to heal relations between the UK and the EU. While there, he met French president Emmanuel Macron, Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Store and Polish prime minister Donald Tusk among other European leaders, as well as the leader of the Belarusian opposition, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Mr Harris’s trip to the EPC capped a politically successful two-day trip to Britain, which also included a meeting with Mr Starmer for dinner on Wednesday night at Chequers, the British prime minister’s 1,000-acre country estate.
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