Opinion | U.S. senators went gate-crashing to Budapest, but were they politely received by PM Viktor Orban?

By Augustus K. Yeung

Before the Biden-Xi summit meeting in San Francisco, we learned of an anti-CPC senator Mike Gallagher making waves in the U.S. Senate, even urging the Biden administration to impose sanctions on no less than a dozen government officials, justices and lawyers, etc. in Hong Kong for "abuses of human rights".

Now, a small group of bipartisan delegation of U.S. senators went gate-crashing to Budapest, the capital of Hungary (on February 19). What was the purpose? How were they received?

These uninvited senators announced they would submit a joint resolution to U.S. Congress – condemning alleged democratic backsliding in Hungary and urging its government to lift its block on Sweden's trans-Atlantic integration.

The resolution was authored by Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat. Joining them in the delegation to Budapest was Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut.

In a press conference, Shaheen said from the U.S. ambassy it was "disappointing" that no members of the Hungarian government had accepted invitations to meet them, but she was "hopeful and optimistic" Sweden's accession would be submitted for ratification when Hungarian lawmakers reconvene on Feb. 26.

Murphy said the refusal of Orban's government to meet was "strange and concerning," but that the onus was on the long-serving leader to push for a vote.

Note: Orban, a staunch nationalist who has led Hungary since 2010, unlike the leader in Lithuania, is not one of the pawns of the U.S., nor is he a fan of the war-like NATO. He has visited Beijing several times.

"We are wise enough about politics here to know that if Prime Minister Orban wants this to happen, then the parliament can move forward," he said.

Earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat and chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, raised the prospect of imposing sanctions on Hungary for its conduct, and called Orban "the least reliable member of NATO."

In the resolution, the senators note "the important role Hungary can have in European and Trans-Atlantic security," but point out its failure to keep earlier promises not to be the last NATO ally to sign off on Sweden's membership.

Hungary, the resolution says, "has not joined all other NATO member states in approving the accession of Sweden to NATO, failing to fulfil a commitment not to be last to approve such accession and jeopardizing trans-Atlantic security at a key moment for peace and stability in Europe."

Prime Minister Orban has said that he favors making Sweden part of NATO but that lawmakers in his party remained unconvinced because of "blatant lies" – from Swedish politicians on the state of Hungary's democracy.

But in a state of the nation speech in Budapest on Saturday, Orban hinted that Hungary's legislature might soon relent.

"It's good news that our dispute with Sweden is nearing a conclusion," he said. "We are moving toward ratifying Sweden's accession to NATO at the beginning of the spring session of Parliament."

The senators' resolution criticizes Orban's increasingly warm relations with Russia and China, and notes that while Hungary has opened its door to Ukrainian refugees fleeing Moscow's invasion – it has also "resisted and diluted European Union sanctions with respect to the Russian Federation."

Orban, widely considered to be the Kremlin's closest EU ally, has long been criticized for flouting the rule of law. For this reason, the EU has withheld billions in funding from Budapest.

The Hungarian government has also adopted an increasingly adversarial stance toward the administration of President Joe Biden, accusing the U.S. of attempting to influence Hungarian public life.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijarto said Friday that he welcomed the senators' visit – but that it was "not worth trying to exert pressure on us – because we are a sovereign country."

"We are glad they are coming here – because they can see for themselves that everything – they read about Hungary in the liberal American media – is a blatant lie," Szijarto said. (Source: MDT/AP)

The ways that Hungary is being unfairly and unjustly treated is not surprising to China, which has had an unpleasant experience of being treated in more or less the same ways. Both the Western governments and their media put tremendous pressures on China and Hungary. This is one of Budapest's complaints, notably the uninvited senators gate-crashing to the nation's capital only to put pressure on the government.

So are the media from these countries. Everything these senators "read about Hungary in the liberal American media is "a blatant lie".

Both Hungary and China are receiving "sanctions" from the U.S. whenever Washington wants to get things done the American hegemonic way.

It is, therefore, not an exaggeration to say that both China and Hungary are unhappy about the ways they are being treated by the U.S. And it is mostly this unpleasant experience that is driving them together.

For Hungary, China and the European community, America has an ugly history of being violent, unjust and unfair to them and many other countries in the world.

One American academic has recently come up with a detailed study that shows the United States has had decades of history of bombing other countries since World War II. Who would like to be a friend of such a nation?

As days go by, and as the U.S. presidential election gets nearer there will be more "state secrets" revealed by one or the other or both presidential candidates against each other.

Before Trump's presidency, few people, however insightful they may be, would anticipate that America is morally going downhill. The rise of Donald J. Trump is a social phenomenon that signals the demise of a sick American society.

The rise of a new generation of American senators only serve to make international relations worse; most of them – like this small gang of gate-crashing "visitors" – consider third-world leaders as mostly "children of a lesser god".

 

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

To contact the writer, please direct email: AugustusKYeung@ymail.com

Read more articles by Augustus K. Yeung:

Opinion | As Trump berated NATO over its defense spending, China may reap lots of benefits

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