BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Hungary has offered to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine twice, and the offer still stands, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a podcast broadcast on Facebook on Thursday.
Szijjarto reacted to reports that the White House was eyeing the Hungarian capital Budapest as a venue for a possible trilateral meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The U.S. Secret Service was preparing for the summit in the central European nation, with Budapest emerging as a first choice for the White House, Politico reported on Tuesday.
“If we are needed, we are ready to provide appropriately fair and safe conditions for such peace negotiations. We are pleased if we can contribute to the success of peace efforts,” Szijjarto said in a daily podcast hosting government members.
However, the foreign minister denied media reports published on Tuesday, including by Reuters and Bloomberg, that U.S. President Donald Trump called Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to talk about Ukraine’s European Union accession after Monday’s summit with Ukraine’s president and European leaders.
“I want to make it clear that there was no such call. There was not. Period,” Szijjarto said.
A White House official had said that Trump and Orban spoke on Monday regarding Ukraine’s talks with the European Union about joining the bloc and also discussed the possibility of Budapest serving as host for talks between Putin and Zelenskiy.
(Reporting by Anita Komuves; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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