President Trump called Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday to win his support for Ukraine to join the European Union (EU), a conversation that came after discussions with European leaders who were at the White House, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The talk with Orban, one of the staunchest Trump allies in Europe, resulted from the president’s Monday deliberations with European leaders who were in Washington, along with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The top European officials asked if the president could utilize his sway over the Hungarian prime minister to force the nationalist leader to do away with his opposition to Ukraine’s joining the EU, a goal Kyiv has long sought, the outlet reported.
Hungary expressed willingness to host the next summit, featuring both Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump has backed the idea of a Putin-Zelensky summit, after which a trilateral meeting would take place between the two leaders and the U.S. president.
The location and timing for the meeting are unclear.
The White House is eyeing a trilateral meeting between Trump, Putin and Zelensky in Budapest, Politico reported on Tuesday, citing a White House official and another person close to the administration.
Orban, who has a warm relationship with Putin, has tried to block or delay the EU’s attempts to send weapons to Ukraine in the past, along with, at times, objecting to sanctions against the Kremlin.
Neither the White House nor Orban’s office has commented on the call.
Orban said on Tuesday on Facebook that Ukraine’s membership in the EU “does not provide any security guarantees,” therefore, “linking membership with security guarantees is unnecessary and dangerous.”
Trump’s call with Orban came the same day as the president’s discussion with Putin, which lasted about 40 minutes and took place without European leaders or Zelensky being in the room with the commander-in-chief.
The gathering of European officials and Zelensky in Washington on Monday came just days after Trump, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff, met with Putin, alongside two other Russian officials, on Friday in Alaska.
Rubio now leads the recently formed joint commission that will work on drafting a security guarantees proposal for Ukraine. The commission is made up of U.S., European, Ukrainian and NATO officials.
Trump, who has pushed to end the Russia-Ukraine war, the conflict that has raged for about three-and-a-half years, signaled openness to providing air support for Ukraine as part of security guarantees.
“We’re willing to help them with things, especially, probably, if you talk about by air because nobody has stuff we have,” the president said Tuesday.
