MIAMI, July 12, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor
Orban jetted off to Florida on Thursday to meet with former US president
Donald Trump after the end of the NATO summit in Washington.

The sit-down at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate is likely to further upset
Budapest's allies after Orban drew widespread ire from European counterparts
for meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin last week.

Right-wing Orban, whose country took over the rotating presidency of the
European Union this month, has been a vocal supporter of Trump, and last met
the 2024 Republican presidential hopeful in March.

"We discussed ways to make peace," Orban said in a post on social media
Thursday evening with a picture of the two leaders meeting. "The good news of
the day: he's going to solve it!"

The post did not elaborate further.

Orban sparked uproar in the EU by jetting to Moscow to hold talks with Putin
on what the Hungarian leader described as a "peace mission" over the war in
Ukraine.

His Russia visit followed a trip to Kyiv for talks with Ukraine's President
Volodymyr Zelensky.

The 27-nation EU bloc has condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine and imposed
unprecedented sanctions on Moscow.

"Viktor Orban has no mandate from the alliance, nor from the European Union,
to conduct any form of negotiations," Finnish President Alexander Stubb said
at the NATO summit.

"He can do it on his own behalf. But I fundamentally disagree about doing
that. I simply do not see the purpose."

Speaking to reporters Thursday, US President Joe Biden, set to face Trump in
November, said that "I have no good reason to talk to Putin right now --
there's not much that he is prepared to do in terms of accommodating any
change in his behavior."

Orban, like Trump, has expressed skepticism about the role NATO countries are
playing in support of Ukraine, and refuses to send Kyiv weapons saying it
would fuel the conflict.

His meeting with Trump, who has been critical of the central role played by
the United States in NATO, came after Biden sought to rally the alliance at
the Washington summit.

The president was also seeking to reassure NATO counterparts -- and US voters
-- about his leadership and fitness for office in the wake of a disastrous
performance against Trump in a televised debate last month rekindled concerns
about his age.

Biden is 81, Trump 78.