Diplomatic Conflict Erupts Between Poland and Hungary Over Orban's Active Government's Cooperation with Russia

A diplomatic row has erupted between Poland and Hungary, exposing deep tensions in Europe over how to deal with Russia as it wages war against Ukraine.

Poland, like Germany, France and most other European countries, is a staunch ally of Ukraine, while Hungary's populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban is widely seen as having the warmest relationship with the Kremlin of any EU leader.

The Polish government has openly criticised Hungary for its stance. The conflict erupted when Orban lashed out at Poland over the weekend.

‘The Poles are leading the most hypocritical and hypocritical policy in all of Europe. They read us moral teachings, criticise us for our economic relations with Russia, and at the same time they do business with the Russians and indirectly buy oil, controlling the Polish economy with it,’ Orban said. 

This provoked objections and an angry response from Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Teofil Bartoszewski, who said on Sunday: ‘We do not do business with Russia, unlike Prime Minister Orban, who is on the margins of international society - as in the European Union and NATO.’

Bartoszewski added that Orban should join an alliance with Putin and even suggested that he should leave Western organisations. His comments were reported by the Polish state news agency PAP.

Hungary has found itself isolated in the EU because of its approach to Russia, as well as its friendly attitude towards China. Top EU officials have boycotted informal meetings organised by Hungary, which currently holds the EU presidency.

‘If you don't want to be a member of the club, you can always leave,’ Bartoszewski said.

Against this backdrop, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that Hungary is looking more and more isolated in the EU, and its position irritates the rest of the member states, Visegrad Insight reports.  

In particular, Sikorski noted that at the last meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council, Hungary did not receive support for its position.

He recalled that at this meeting of the EU Council, there was also a discussion about where one of the meetings of the Council of Foreign Ministers should take place during the Hungarian presidency: in Budapest or in Brussels. 

‘I proposed as a compromise to hold it in Ukraine - either in Lviv or even in Mukachevo, which was initially met with enthusiasm by the Hungarian foreign minister. And let me remind you that a precedent had already been set two years ago, when this Council meeting was held in Kyiv. However, during our meeting, the Hungarian minister seemed to have received other instructions from the capital and was eventually forced to veto the proposal. He was left alone,’ Sikorsky added.