BRUSSELS (AP) — Hungary has agreed not to stop NATO from providing aid to Ukraine, but it will not provide personnel or funds to help the war-ravaged country, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday .
US President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts are expected to agree at a summit in Washington next month on a new system for providing more predictable and long-term security assistance and military training to Ukraine’s beleaguered armed forces.
“Hungary will not participate in these NATO efforts and I accept this position,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Budapest after talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Stoltenberg said he and Orbán had “agreed on modalities for Hungary’s non-participation in NATO support to Ukraine.” NATO’s top civilian official did not elaborate on how that would work.
“No Hungarian personnel will participate in these activities and no Hungarian funds will be used to support them,” Stoltenberg said.
“At the same time, the Prime Minister has assured me that Hungary will not oppose these efforts, allowing other allies to make progress, and has confirmed that Hungary will continue to fully comply with its NATO obligations,” Stoltenberg added.
NATO makes all its decisions by consensus, effectively giving one of its 32 allies a veto.
Hungary’s stridently nationalist government has increasingly become a thorn in the side of NATO – and the European Union – by undermining their efforts to help Ukraine. All other allies agree that Russia’s war against Ukraine poses an existential threat to European security.
Orbán, seen as one of the friendliest European leaders toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, calls himself a peacemaker and labels his EU and NATO partners helping Ukraine as “pro-war.” He has also advocated for former US President Donald Trump’s victory in the November election.
Since Russia’s full-fledged invasion in February 2022, Ukraine’s Western backers have routinely met as part of the Pentagon-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group to drum up weapons and ammunition for Kiev.
Stoltenberg has spearheaded an effort to have NATO coordinate that process. As an organization, the military alliance does not send weapons to Ukraine and has no plans to do so, but many of its members provide assistance on a bilateral basis.
NATO allies provide more than 90% of the military aid that Ukraine receives.
Plans are afoot for NATO leaders to commit on July 9-11 to maintain the level of military support they have provided to Ukraine since the start of the invasion. The world’s largest safety organization estimates that approximately $40 billion in equipment is needed annually.
At their summit in Lithuania last year, Biden and his colleagues pledged that they would “be able to invite Ukraine to join the alliance if the allies agree and the conditions are met.” The consensus among members now is that this should not happen as long as the war continues.
