Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met with former U.S. president Donald Trump on Thursday, shortly after attending a NATO summit in Washington.

Mr Orbán shared a picture of their meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on X, writing, “Peace mission 5.0. We discussed ways to make #peace. The good news of the day, he’s going to solve it.”

Mr Orbán has maintained good relations with Trump since the former U.S. president’s election victory in 2016.

The two men last met in March, after which Orbán called Trump the “president of peace,’’ while Trump called Orbán a fantastic leader.

Mr Trump aims to reclaim the White House for the Republican Party after the U.S. presidential elections in November, seeking to replace President Joe Biden, who is expected to run for the Democrats again.

In the days leading up to the NATO summit held in Washington this week, Mr Orbán made headlines with surprise visits to Russia, Ukraine and China, a trip he labelled his “peace mission.’’

The trip to Moscow, in particular, as Hungary took over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union in July, sparked ire from Mr Orbán’s EU and NATO allies.

Several EU officials, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, later stressed that the Hungarian leader had no official EU mandate for negotiations with Russia. 

(dpa/NAN)