Visegrad Summit canceled – Prague and Warsaw ‘turn their backs’ on Budapest

A meeting of Visegrad’s group scheduled for Wednesday in Budapest has been canceled following a decision by the Polish and Czech defense ministers not to attend because of Hungary’s ties to the Kremlin.

“A meeting of the defense ministers of the so-called V4 group will take place at a later date,” the Hungarian defense ministry told AFP today, without giving further details.

Earlier, Polish Minister Marius Blazak announced that he “will not go” to Budapest. Czech counterpart Yana Chernotsova also said last week that she would not be going to Budapest.

“They have elections next week and it is not right for me to participate in the campaign,” she explained, referring to the parliamentary elections to be held on April 3 in Hungary.

“I have always supported V4 and I am really disappointed that Hungarian politicians now find that cheap Russian oil is more important than Ukrainian blood,” she said.

Commenting on Blazac’s decision not to attend the meeting, the leader of the opposition New Left party’s parliamentary group, Krzysztof Gavkovsky, welcomed it. “It is very good that he will not go there. The Hungarians should be punished for their pro-Russian position,” he said.

The office of Austrian Defense Minister Claudia Tanner, who was invited to the meeting, also confirmed its cancellation, according to the local press.

The Visegrad Group (V4), which was founded 30 years ago in the midst of the post-communist transition, includes Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary.

These Central European countries, members of NATO, were particularly active during the “immigration crisis” of 2015, rejecting the quota system for the distribution of part of the refugees, which was proposed by Brussels.

But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought to light differences within the alliance, as Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, who’s close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, wants to stay out of the conflict.

Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ