The President of Hungary Tamas Shujok will not be present in Riga at the summit of the “Bucharest Nine” – a group of Eastern European NATO member countries, the office of the President of Latvia informed.
The office also said that for the first time since the format was created in 2015, a joint declaration of nine countries will not be adopted at the summit. Instead, based on the results of the meeting in Riga, a separate statement will be issued on behalf of the presidents of Latvia, Romania and Poland, the press secretary of Latvian President Edgars Rinkevich announced on Monday.
Recently, serious disagreements have been observed between Hungary and other Central European countries due to the position of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who continues to maintain close ties with Russia and refuses to supply weapons to Ukraine.
“Hungary will be represented by the ambassador in Latvia”, – announced in the office.
The presidents of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia are usually personally present at the annual summits of the “Bucharest Nine” group. These countries are members of both NATO and the European Union.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who will also attend the summit in Riga, will visit Budapest the next day “to discuss the issue of Hungary’s withdrawal from the NATO mission in Ukraine,” Orbán told state media earlier on Monday.
Last week, Hungary made it clear that it does not plan to abandon the import of natural gas from Russia and seeks to deepen business ties with Moscow in non-sanctioned areas.
