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BRUSSELS, 12 Jun (AP) \u2014 Hungary agreed on Wednesday not to veto NATO support for Ukraine but Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n insisted that his government would provide neither funds nor military personnel for any joint assistance effort.<\/p>\n
At a summit in Washington next month, U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts are expected to agree on a new system to provide more predictable, long-term security help and military training to Ukraine\u2019s beleaguered armed forces.<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s Western allies are trying to bolster military support for Kyiv as Russian troops launch attacks along the more than 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, taking advantage of a lengthy delay in U.S. military aid.<\/p>\n
\u201cHungary made it clear at today\u2019s meeting that it does not want to block decisions in NATO that \u2026 are decisions shared and advocated by the other member states,\u201d Orb\u00e1n told reporters after talks in Budapest with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked the Secretary-General to make it clear that all military action outside NATO territory can only be voluntary in nature, according to NATO rules and our traditions,\u201d said Orb\u00e1n, who has tried to style himself as a peacemaker. \u201cHungary has received the guarantees we need.\u201d<\/p>\n
As an organization, the world\u2019s biggest security alliance does not send weapons or ammunition to Ukraine and has no plans to put troops on the ground. But many of its members give help on a bilateral basis, and jointly provide more than 90% of the country\u2019s military support.<\/p>\n
The other 31 allies see Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine as an existential security threat to Europe, but most of them, including Biden, have been extremely cautious to ensure that NATO is not drawn into a wider conflict with Russia.<\/p>\n
NATO operates on the basis that an attack on any single ally will be met with a response from them all.<\/p>\n
Stoltenberg confirmed that Hungary would not take part in NATO\u2019s plans and said: \u201cI accept this position.\u201d NATO\u2019s top civilian official said he and Orb\u00e1n had \u201cagreed modalities for Hungary\u2019s non-participation in NATO\u2019s support for Ukraine,\u201d but did not elaborate on how that would work.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, the prime minister has assured me that Hungary will not oppose these efforts, enabling other allies to move forward, and he has confirmed that Hungary will continue to meet its NATO commitments in full,\u201d Stoltenberg added.<\/p>\n
NATO takes all its decisions by consensus, effectively giving any one of the 32 allies a veto.<\/p>\n
Hungary\u2019s stridently nationalist government has increasingly become a thorn in the side of NATO \u2014 and the European Union \u2014 by undermining their efforts to help Ukraine. Orb\u00e1n is also holding up moves to nominate outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as the alliance\u2019s next secretary-general.<\/p>\n
Orb\u00e1n, one of the friendliest European leaders toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, has labelled his EU and NATO partners assisting Ukraine as being \u201cpro-war.\u201d He has also advocated for former U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s victory in the November election.<\/p>\n
Since Russia\u2019s full-fledged invasion in February 2022, Ukraine\u2019s Western backers have routinely met as part of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, run by the Pentagon, to drum up weapons and ammunition for Kyiv.<\/p>\n
Stoltenberg has spearheaded an effort to have NATO coordinate that process.<\/p>\n
Plans are afoot for NATO\u2019s leaders to commit on July 9-11 to maintain the level of military support they have provided Ukraine since the invasion began. Officials estimate that this amounts to around $40 billion worth of equipment each year.<\/p>\n
At their summit in Lithuania last year, Biden and his counterparts promised that they would \u201cbe in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the alliance when allies agree and conditions are met.\u201d The consensus among members now is that it should not happen while war rages on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRUSSELS, 12 Jun (AP) \u2014 Hungary agreed on Wednesday not to veto NATO support for Ukraine but Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n insisted that his government would provide neither funds nor military personnel for any joint assistance effort. At a summit in Washington next month, U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts are expected to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-242088","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}