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Hungary's Orbán Meets Putin for Talks in Moscow in a Rare Visit by a European Leader

A handout photo made available by the Hungarian Prime Minister's Press Office shows Russian President Vladimir Putin (C-R) and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (C-L) during their meeting as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (3-R), Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto (2-L) and Orban's chief national security advisor Marcell Biro (L) look on in the Kemlin in Moscow, Russia, 05 July 2024. Orban arrived in Moscow on a one-day working visit. EPA/VIVIEN CHER BENKO/HUNGARIAN PM'S PRESS OFFICE
A handout photo made available by the Hungarian Prime Minister's Press Office shows Russian President Vladimir Putin (C-R) and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (C-L) during their meeting as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (3-R), Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto (2-L) and Orban's chief national security advisor Marcell Biro (L) look on in the Kemlin in Moscow, Russia, 05 July 2024. Orban arrived in Moscow on a one-day working visit. EPA/VIVIEN CHER BENKO/HUNGARIAN PM'S PRESS OFFICE
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Hungary's Orbán Meets Putin for Talks in Moscow in a Rare Visit by a European Leader

A handout photo made available by the Hungarian Prime Minister's Press Office shows Russian President Vladimir Putin (C-R) and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (C-L) during their meeting as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (3-R), Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto (2-L) and Orban's chief national security advisor Marcell Biro (L) look on in the Kemlin in Moscow, Russia, 05 July 2024. Orban arrived in Moscow on a one-day working visit. EPA/VIVIEN CHER BENKO/HUNGARIAN PM'S PRESS OFFICE
A handout photo made available by the Hungarian Prime Minister's Press Office shows Russian President Vladimir Putin (C-R) and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (C-L) during their meeting as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (3-R), Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto (2-L) and Orban's chief national security advisor Marcell Biro (L) look on in the Kemlin in Moscow, Russia, 05 July 2024. Orban arrived in Moscow on a one-day working visit. EPA/VIVIEN CHER BENKO/HUNGARIAN PM'S PRESS OFFICE

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán visited Moscow on Friday to discuss prospects for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a rare trip to Russia by a European leader that drew condemnation from Kyiv and European leaders.
Orbán's visit comes only days after he made a similar unannounced trip to Ukraine, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and proposed that Ukraine consider agreeing to an immediate cease-fire with Russia.
“The number of countries that can talk to both warring sides is diminishing,” Orbán said. “Hungary is slowly becoming the only country in Europe that can speak to everyone.”
Hungary assumed the rotating presidency of the EU at the start of July and Putin suggested that Orbán had come to Moscow as a top representative of the European Council. Several top European officials dismissed that suggestion and said Orbán had no mandate for anything beyond a discussion about bilateral relations.
Speaking after the Kremlin talks, Orbán said he told Putin that "Europe needs peace,” adding that he asked the Russian leader for his thoughts on existing peace plans and whether he believed a cease-fire could precede any potential peace talks.
Standing alongside Orbán, Putin declared that Russia wouldn’t accept any cease-fire or temporary break in hostilities that would allow Ukraine “to recoup losses, regroup and rearm.”
The Russian leader repeated his demand that Ukraine withdraw its troops from the four regions that Moscow claims to have annexed in 2022 as a condition for any prospective peace talks. Ukraine and its Western allies have rejected that demand, suggesting it is akin to asking Kyiv to withdraw from its own territory.
Putin said they also exchanged views on the current state of Russia-EU relations which, are “now at their lowest point.”
Hungary at the beginning of the month took over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU Council, a largely formal role that can be used to shape the bloc’s policy agenda.
Orbán said that he looks at his six-month presidency of the EU Council as a “peace mission,” saying the fighting in Ukraine had burdened Europe’s security and economy, and that only dialogue and diplomacy could bring an end to the hostilities.
“I wanted to know where we can find the shortest road to peace,” Orbán said of his visit, adding that he’d also asked Putin on his view on Europe’s long-term security after hostilities end in Ukraine.
European officials have heavily criticized Orbán's trip to Moscow, the first such visit by a European leader since Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer met with Putin in the Kremlin in April 2022, just weeks after Russia sent troops into Ukraine.

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Biden’s Departing UN Envoy Says US Rivals Will Fill the Vacuum If Trump Abandons Global Leadership

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, speaks after a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Aug. 24, 2023, at United Nations headquarters. (AP)
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, speaks after a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Aug. 24, 2023, at United Nations headquarters. (AP)
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Biden’s Departing UN Envoy Says US Rivals Will Fill the Vacuum If Trump Abandons Global Leadership

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, speaks after a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Aug. 24, 2023, at United Nations headquarters. (AP)
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, speaks after a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Aug. 24, 2023, at United Nations headquarters. (AP)

The outgoing US ambassador to the United Nations says she watched America’s leadership diminish in the world during Donald Trump’s first presidency and China fill the vacuum. Linda Thomas-Greenfield is warning that if it happens again during Trump's second term, adversaries will move in anew.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, Thomas-Greenfield said during Joe Biden’s presidency, the United States again engaged with the world, rebuilt alliances and reestablished America’s leadership.

"That is the gift that we hand over to the next administration," she said, "and I hope that they will accept that gift in the spirit in which it is being given to them."

Advice to Trump's choice for UN ambassador

In a brief meeting with Trump’s nominee, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, Thomas-Greenfield told her "that the UN is important, and that it is important that we not cede any space to our adversaries."

Those rivals "will change the rules of the road," she warned. "And so, US leadership is extraordinarily important."

In his first term, Trump called the United Nations "just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time." He suspended funding to its health and family planning agencies and withdrew from its cultural and education organization UNESCO and top human rights body. That's raised uncertainty about what's ahead, especially because the United States is the UN's biggest single donor.

Stefanik has called for a "complete reassessment" of US funding for the 193-nation world body, described the UN as a "den of antisemitism" and urged a continued halt to support for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.

Of course, the UN isn’t perfect and needs reforms, Thomas-Greenfield said.

But to those who criticize the UN as a big bureaucracy where little gets done or decisions are ignored, she said she always quotes the late former US ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright, who said "if it didn’t exist, we would invent it."

Thomas-Greenfield stressed the UN’s importance in dealing with major global issues, from war to humanitarian aid and the need to regulate artificial intelligence.

The United States must stay at the table, she said, "so that we can have influence and work with the entire system to ensure that the system delivers to the world."

The most important table is the horseshoe-shaped one for the 15 members of the UN Security Council, the most powerful UN body, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security.

Thomas-Greenfield said she gave Stefanik the same advice she got — to meet quickly with all of them — including permanent members Russia and China, rivals with veto power.

"She’s going to be sitting around the table with them on almost a daily basis," Thomas-Greenfield said. "So, it’s important to know the individuals you are going to have to engage with, whether they are friends or foes."

The failure to solve global crises

In her final emotional speech to the Security Council, Thomas-Greenfield focused on Sudan, saying she wished there was closure on one crisis the world faces — ticking off Gaza, Ukraine, Congo and other hotspots.

She told AP the UN and the world "have to be more proactive in our engagement" to try to end these conflicts.

Sudan, where nearly two years of fighting has created famine and the world’s worst displacement crisis, is an example "of where as an international community, we could have done more sooner and ended the suffering sooner."

Her focus on Africa Thomas-Greenfield, now 72, started her career as an academic and lived in Liberia, where she first saw US diplomats at work and decided to join the Foreign Service in 1982.

She spent much of her more than 40-year career in Africa, returning to Liberia as ambassador, and rose to be assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 2013 to 2017, when Trump took office.

Biden brought her out of retirement to become UN ambassador and a member of his Cabinet.

At the United Nations, she said she’s gained a much broader perspective on Africa’s important place in the world and urged recognition of its immense resources — its people.

"Africa is an extraordinarily young continent," Thomas-Greenfield said. "These young people will be the future of the world."

Using ‘gumbo diplomacy’

At the UN, Thomas-Greenfield harkened back to her Louisiana roots, saying she was going to engage in "gumbo diplomacy" by cooking the state’s famous dish — which mixes up lots of different flavors — for fellow diplomats.

Diplomacy is about bringing together people with different ideas, backgrounds, interests and guidance "and coming up with a solution that we all can live with," she said.

"That’s what I think diplomacy is about. That’s what gumbo is about. So gumbo diplomacy has been very successful," Thomas-Greenfield said, pointing to over 200 UN resolutions adopted during her four years as ambassador, 77 of them drafted by the United States.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said "she has connected with people of all backgrounds and beliefs — using her signature ‘gumbo diplomacy,’ always speaking from the head, but also from the heart."

Now, Thomas-Greenfield said she plans to spend time with her grandchildren and work with college students to encourage "the next generation of multilateralists who will be filling the halls of the United Nations."

As a Black woman, she said her advice to young Black men and women is "dream big," and if things don't go your way, look for another tack and "open doors that you hadn't intended to go through."