Continuous discussion between us and exchange of experiences related to government work, especially in four areas: migration, number two, gender ideology, number three, family policy, and number four, global security. Because in these areas, Hungary has amassed substantial experiences and quite an extended network of contacts in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. As a result of our discussions today, we have agreed that it is in the interest of both parties to continue this cooperation and that the strategic cooperation between the two countries is going to be continuous and will be continued. Thank you very much for honoring us with your presence, for coming to Hungary.
Prime Minister, thank you very much. And now I ask the Vice President to deliver his statement.
Well, thank you, Prime Minister, first of all, and thanks to the people of Hungary for welcoming me. This is a beautiful city, a city that I've been to once before on a personal trip probably five or six years ago. And I remember the first time that I came to this beautiful country, my wife was about 20 weeks pregnant with our second child, and now we've come back to Budapest, and my wife is 20 weeks pregnant with our fourth child. So, there's an interesting way in which our trips to Hungary have rhymed. I also want to thank the President of the United States who of course is a dear friend of Prime Minister Orbán and a very strident supporter of Prime Minister Orbán because together the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Hungary have been able to do amazing things and we're here because we want to celebrate those amazing things. We want to build upon those amazing things and of course I want to help as much as I possibly can the Prime Minister as he faces this election season which I believe is happening in just about a week, the election to elect the next Prime Minister of Hungary. Now, I don't expect, of course, the people of Hungary to listen to the Vice President of the United States. That's not primarily why I'm here. But I did want to send a signal to everybody, particularly the bureaucrats in Brussels, who have done everything that they can to hold down the people of Hungary because they don't like the leader who has actually stood up for the people of Hungary. And I think it's important to say that there are so many things that we could point to. There are so many economic pieces of cooperation, so much investment that's come into Hungary from the United States. I think Viktor Orbán has been the single most profound leader in Europe on the question of energy security and independence. It is funny to watch prime ministers and leaders in some of the Western European capitals talk about the energy crisis when frankly they should have been following the policies of Viktor Orbán in Hungary. And if they had, the energy crisis that they're experiencing would be a lot less bad because what's going on in Hungary right now is that while yes, energy prices are elevated, they're far less elevated here than they are almost anywhere else in Europe. And that's because the leadership of the man who's standing next to me. And I think that leadership can provide a model to the continent. We want Europe to be successful. We want European families to be able to afford to heat their homes and to build great things. We want Europe to be energy independent and even energy dominant, but it's not going to be energy secure if it continues to follow the failed policies of the past. And so I think Viktor has been a great example in charting a course that could lead to a better, more prosperous, and more energy secure Europe. There's a lot of other cooperation in technology and artificial intelligence and manufacturing. There are so many ways in which the United States and Hungary have been great economic partners and that partnership has really accelerated over the past couple of years under President Trump's leadership. But ladies and gentlemen, I'm not here primarily, Viktor, because of the economic cooperation between our countries. I'm here because of the moral cooperation between our two countries. Because what the United States and Hungary together represent under Viktor's leadership and under President Trump's leadership is the defense of Western civilization. The defense of the idea that children should be able to go to school and get educated and not indoctrinated. The defense of the idea that European and American families should be able to transport themselves and be able to afford to heat and cool their homes. The defense of the idea that we are founded on a certain Christian civilization and Christian values that animate everything from freedom of speech to rule of law to respect for minority rights and protection of the vulnerable. There is so much that unites the United States and Hungary and unfortunately there have been too few people who have been willing to stand up for the values of Western civilization. Viktor Orbán is the rare exception that has unfortunately proved the rule. That's one of the reasons why I'm here. I'm here because Viktor is a statesman and we have seen so much talk in European capitals about the need to end the war in Russia and Ukraine and we certainly agree with it. The war would have never started if President Trump had been president four years ago. But now that it has started, probably the two leaders who have done the most to actually end that destructive conflict have been Donald J. Trump and Viktor Orbán in Hungary. And they've done it through diplomacy, through talking to people, through trying to understand what the Ukrainians and the Russians need to end the war. We're going to continue to participate in that process. But I think that it is a testament to the people of Hungary that you're a country of 10 million people. But I'm telling you, I've sat in all the rooms and I've been on all the phone calls. Your leadership has been a far, far more important and constructive partner for peace than almost anyone anywhere else in the world. And that is a great testament I think to the wisdom and the courage of the people of Hungary. And then finally just want to say something, one final observation about this election. What has happened in this country, what has happened in the midst of this election campaign is one of the worst examples of foreign election interference that I've ever seen or ever even read about. The bureaucrats in Brussels have tried to destroy the economy of Hungary. They have tried to make Hungary less energy independent. They have tried to drive up costs for Hungarian consumers. And they've done it all because they hate this guy. But I think that what the people of Hungary, what I would encourage them to do is ask themselves the question, not who's pro or anti-Europe, not who's pro or anti-the United States of America, but who is pro-you? Who is pro-the people of Hungary? In my experience, I've seen a guy who has ferociously advocated for the interest of Hungary. I'm here to help him in this campaign cycle. And yet, when I sat down with Viktor, we didn't talk about politics. We talked about business. Here are five things that the Hungarian people need from the United States in order to further our partnership and in order to achieve prosperity. That's the kind of leadership that is needed. And on everything from digital censorship, why are bureaucrats in Brussels telling social media companies what information they're giving to Hungarian voters? I think the voters of Hungary are adults. They are sovereign in their own country and they should be able to look at whatever information they would like to about the election without somebody in a faraway capital treating them like children. Sovereignty, democracy are fundamentally about the people choosing. And part of the reason why we're here and part of the reason why the President of the United States sent me here is because we think the amount of interference that's come from the bureaucracy in Brussels has been truly disgraceful. I won't tell the people of Hungary how to vote. I would encourage the bureaucrats in Brussels to do the exact same thing. So Viktor, thank you and it's good to see you.
We'll take a couple of questions. You want to... Thank you, Mr. Vice President. We have time for a couple of questions. The first two go to the Hungarian side and then the floor is yours, Mr. Vice President.
Thank you very much. Vice President, regarding the possibilities of ending the Russian-Ukrainian war during the negotiations from the Vice President, I would like to ask you to comment on the threat of President Zelensky towards Hungary and personally towards Viktor Orbán. Thank you.
Okay. We did touch upon the Russian-Ukrainian war, which is a painful subject. We're talking about a war waged between two Christian countries, moreover in the territory of Europe. So these two sentences actually set out how serious this war is. And I always looked on the President of the United States, obviously, but from the first moment onward he regarded these two dimensions as most important in Europe. Orthodox Christian countries are waging a war where tens and hundreds of thousands of people become injured for life. It's so terrible that you have to stop it at all costs. And the United States prior to President Trump was for us is indeed very valuable because fundamentally when a Hungarian and US politician meet they cannot avoid talking about the war. Moreover, this war is being waged in the neighborhood of Hungary. Hungarians also die in this war since in the current territory of Ukraine multiple Hungarians live who are drafted, occasionally with brutal coercive measures they are taken to the front where they die. You cannot avoid talking about the Russian-Ukrainian specialist because previously the President of the United States had initiated a peace summit between the US and Russia and he recommended as a venue for these talks Budapest, the capital of Hungary, which is perhaps the only possible venue in Hungary. In fact, I must say that up to the level of the technical preparation of this meeting, we negotiate with both the President of the United States and the President of Russia and Hungary remains ready. So that if the US and Russia believe that a peace summit is required between the two of them then Budapest will be happy to provide itself as a venue for that meeting and we are available. That's all I can say to you.
Thank you for your willingness to host and just to answer your question. So I'm not aware of President Zelensky threatening Viktor Orbán. I know that there have been a lot of people who have threatened Viktor and have frankly not just threatened the people of Hungary, but have actually tried to exact costs on the people of Hungary because their leadership has been one of the few that's been wise and smart about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Now look, you don't have to defend the morality of the war. I think Viktor has. I certainly have. The President of the United States has condemned the invasion. We don't like the war. We want it to stop. That's not the question. The question is, how do you make it stop? And the answer is not by politicians who stand at microphones and beat their chest and act tough when somebody else's children are going off to fight in a conflict. You do it through sustained diplomacy. And so I'd ask the people of Hungary, and not just Hungary, but the people all across Europe, what is the alternative to peace? Is it to continue feeding young men into this terrible, terrible war, to continue this completely ridiculous cycle of violence? Or is it to get serious about diplomacy? Is it to continue to have skyrocketing energy prices to the point where European economies are on the verge of collapse? Or is it to sit down and get serious about a peaceful resolution? The reason the President of the United States has been so dedicated about this is not because it affects us as personally as it does the people of Hungary or Europe. In fact, we're much more insulated as all of you know from what's going on in Russia and Ukraine than most countries anywhere else in the world. The President has asked us to work so diligently on it because he knows that it's bad. It's bad for commerce. It's bad for morality. It's bad for human life. We need to actually engage in some real diplomacy. Viktor has been better than anybody at helping us understand what is it the Ukrainians need and what is it that the Russians need in order to achieve peace. We're going to keep on working on that process. As you've all heard the President say, this war has been the hardest of all the wars that he's worked on to solve, but we're going to keep on working at it. The President has ordered us to keep on working at it. But we need people in Europe who understand the stakes and understand how to get this negotiation done. Viktor's been a great part of it, which is why the President asked him about the Budapest summit because I think if we're ever going to get these leaders together, this is the perfect place to do it. A place of real statesmanship, a place that has shown itself very willing to be a positive force for peace.
Thank you very much. Question goes to Patriot.
Thank you very much. Good afternoon to you. I have one question to each of the participants. Mr. Orbán, you have mentioned the serious energy crisis that we are facing. The ships that have been able to pass the Strait of Hormuz are just reaching Europe. Now that there is no oil coming from Russia or from the Middle East, what do you think will happen with Europe, with Hungary? And what could the Hungarian-American Energy Corporation mean for Hungary? And what do you think, will Brussels also lift the sanctions on the Russians? President Vance, in English, if I may, please. So according to recent US intelligence reports, Ukraine may have interfered in the American elections helping the Democrats. It has also come to light that the Ukrainian intelligence treats Hungary as an operational zone as well. What kind of political motivation could be behind Ukraine targeting conservative patriotic political forces both in the United States and in Hungary? Thank you very much.
I think there is definitely a new situation in Europe, but the Hungarian elections are perhaps tightening our horizon, restricting our horizon. Therefore, we're not paying as much attention because of the elections to the developments, of course, because we Hungarians are mainly preoccupied with the outcome of the elections next Sunday. However, there is something that is going to change everything that's happening. The thing is that the strategy that the Europeans have followed to support the Ukrainians so far has ended, has failed. This strategy has failed at the start already. It was an extremely strange idea to actually help the Ukrainians and try to bring about a situation where the protracted war puts Russia in such dire straits economically from the perspective of the Ukrainians and the Europeans to support them. They will be, the Russians will be forced to sit down with them even on a status that is preferable for the opposition. However, to wage an economic war against a country that has unlimited energy resources and has unlimited raw materials while those waging economic war do not have energy and do not have raw materials was a very strange idea. For some time, they might have believed that the sanctions laid on Russia in the end will be enough to actually win this economic war. But what is happening now is all of a sudden everything has gained importance what the Russians dispose of and suddenly they are in a much more favorable position than they used to be before ever. So the support of the Ukrainian strategy has basically failed. Now we are concentrating on the elections. That's why perhaps less attention is paid to this faced with an absolutely new situation after the Hungarian election. The Hungarian situation is difficult. I do not want to make a secret of it because it was first at the end of 2022 that the Ukrainians closed, blockaded a gas pipeline that was bringing gas from Russia to Hungary. We managed to fend that off with the TurkStream but just now, not much before the elections and I think because of the upcoming elections and in the hope of having a pro-Ukrainian government elected into office, they actually blockaded our oil pipeline, the oil pipeline that is the umbilical cord of the Hungarian economy coming from Russia, the main supply route. Consequently, Hungary has had to tap into her reserves. There are two things we are doing. On the one hand, they closed us off from oil. We have to supply the Hungarian economy, Hungarian consumers with fuel and with energy. We have to force the Ukrainians to reopen the pipeline and we have a plan to do that. We are actually executing that step by step. And at the end of this, I am convinced after the national forces win the election here in Hungary, there will be no option left for the Ukrainians than to lift this blockade, to reopen the pipeline and Hungary can just go back to normal operation. These are my hopes, these are my plans. This is how it's going to happen.
