Europe EU foreign ministers expected to debate Orban's trip

The foreign ministers of the 27 EU member states are meeting in Brussels to discuss the situation in the Middle East and Ukraine.

A video conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is also planned at the last regular meeting before the summer break.

The meeting will be overshadowed by internal EU differences over how to react to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's uncoordinated trips to Russian President Vladimir Putin, China's head of state and party leader Xi Jinping and former US President Donald Trump.

Some member states would like to cancel or at least postpone an informal meeting of foreign ministers planned for the end of August in the Hungarian capital Budapest because of the unilateral approach. However, countries such as Germany were opposed to this until the very end - partly because they would prefer to reiterate on the spot why they considered Orban's talks with Putin, Xi and Trump to be wrong.

Why the trip to Moscow is causing trouble

The trip is particularly annoying because Hungary currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council and it was feared that the impression would be created abroad that Orban was speaking on behalf of the European Union at the meetings. From the EU Commission's point of view, Orban was also damaging the EU's efforts to present a united front in its Ukraine policy. In terms of content, the main criticism was that Putin's trip could be seen as a concession.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had announced in response to Orban's unilateral action that top representatives of her institution would no longer travel to ministerial meetings organized by the Hungarian EU Council Presidency for the time being.

Orban himself justifies his travels by stating that he believes peace negotiations must take place as soon as possible. The Hungarian has long held the view that the political course of the EU and NATO could lead to an expansion of the war beyond Ukraine. From Ukraine's point of view, however, negotiations are pointless as long as Russia shows no willingness to withdraw from the occupied territories.