The U.S. ambassador to Hungary has warned Budapest about its expanding relationship with Russia and raised "legitimate security concerns" in a speech marking the 25th anniversary of Hungary joining NATO.
Ambassador David Pressman said on March 14 that while Hungary was a longtime friend and ally, it had been doing things that undermine trust and friendship, and the concerns he has are shared by Hungary's NATO allies and "cannot be ignored."
The concerns center on a government "that labels and treats the United States an 'adversary' while making policy choices that increasingly isolate it from friends and allies," Pressman said at the anniversary event organized by the U.S. Embassy.
The United States "cannot ignore the speaker of Hungary's National Assembly claiming that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's war in Ukraine is in fact 'led by the United States,'" Pressman said. "We cannot understand or accept that the prime minister identifies the United States as the 'main adversary' of...Hungary."
Pressman added that Hungary's allies were warning of the dangers of Hungary's "close and expanding relations with Russia," and if this is Hungary's political decision, "then we must decide how best to protect our security interests, which should be our common security interests as allies."
Western government have been unhappy over Prime Minister Viktor Orban's continued warm ties with Moscow despite Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Relations between Budapest and Washington soured over Hungary's delay in the ratification of Sweden's NATO accession.
The ambassador recalled that Orban was prime minister in 1999 when Hungary joined NATO and said then that his country had "finally anchored" itself to the West, but is now increasingly isolated within the alliance.
He said Hungary had openly called for the United States and other allies to cut off Ukraine from military support in order to force an immediate cease-fire and peace negotiations.
"The United States also wants peace. We want this war to end. But the Hungarian proposal does not stand up to reality," he said.
Pressman said the problem was not only what the government has said but also what it has done. This includes the "systematic seizure of independent media" and harassment of the remaining independent press.
He also took aim at the government "securing all aspects” of power and cited favorable conditions created for businesses owned by party leaders, their family members, and old friends.
He stressed that the United States continues to seek dialogue with the Hungarian government and wants a relationship based on "democratic values, common security, and prosperity." The U.S. leadership has decided that it wants to improve relations, but this has not yet been matched by the Hungarian government, he said.
Earlier this week, Pressman was summoned by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto after President Joe Biden made a comment about Orban's visit the previous week to former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Biden said Orban had "made it clear that he does not believe democracy works."
Szijjarto denied that Orban had ever said that, adding that Budapest was "not obliged to tolerate such lies from anyone. Not even if the person happens to be the president of the United States of America."
The mood was further soured when U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan refused to retract Biden's statement and added that he was watching with concern as the Hungarian government attacked democratic institutions.
Szijjarto responded on March 13 on Facebook with a post saying that the U.S. government "has continued its campaign of lies against Hungary."
He said the Democratic Party in the United States found it "difficult to bear the fact that in the middle of Europe's progressive liberal sea there is still an island where we proudly proclaim: no war, no gender, no migration!"