Estonian and Lithuanian leaders criticize Orbán's meeting with Putin

It is useful for the Kremlin but not for the EU, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said of the recent Orbán-Putin meeting. Speaking on arrival at the European Council summit which started on Thursday, she said the Russian leadership wants to see them divided. Kallas added that although she had already seen Orbán's public comments about the meeting, she will probably bring it up in person to her Hungarian counterpart and ask him why it was necessary.

If he said the wrong things, he still did the right things so far

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met with the Russian president in China earlier this month and, arriving at the EU summit on Thursday, said he was proud of his government's strategy of keeping all channels of communication open with Russia.

Kaja Kallas, on the other hand said that Vladimir Putin is a war criminal who has attacked a sovereign country, deported children and has an ICC arrest warrant out for him, and for this reason

"I wouldn't want to be in the same picture with such a guy".

Answering a question, Kallas also said that she doesn't think Viktor Orbán will apologise and "you can't make anybody do that", but added that

"so far it's always been" that even if he said the wrong things, he did the right things, "so we were fine.

He has been quite critical of supporting Ukraine, but he has still taken part in it. I hope that Hungary will continue to be part of it".

Lithuanian President says meeting sends wrong message

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said, "It's more than strange to see us flirting with a regime" which is "committing atrocities on the territory of Ukraine," he said.

It sends a very bad message to the international community and to Ukraine, which is "fighting for our freedom too", because if it were to lose, "the security of all of us would become more fragile". He said it's easy to see that there would be next targets if the first one were to be conquered successfully.

When asked if the Hungarian Prime Minister should apologize for his meeting with Putin, Nausėda said: "We are not in a kindergarten. Viktor Orbán was elected and he has the right not to regret the meeting”, although the Lithuanian President does consider it regrettable.

Swedish Prime Minister expects to talk to Orbán about their NATO membership during the summit

According to Politico, on arrival at the meeting, the Swedish Prime Minister was asked about the Turks' having caught up with Hungary in the ratification process of Sweden's NATO membership, which means that the Hungarian Parliament may be the last to approve the process.

“I have respect for all NATO countries that will make their own decision. That concerns Turkey as well as Hungary,” Kristersson replied, adding that he expects to have a discussion with Orbán on the sidelines in the upcoming two days of the summit.