BUDAPEST, HUNGARY:
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday that the balance of global power was shifting towards Asia, citing China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia as the world’s future great powers.
“In the next long decades, perhaps even centuries, Asia will be the dominant center of the world,” Orban said, emphasizing the emerging influence of these nations on the world stage.
Orban’s comments came during a speech in Budapest, where he also criticized the West, calling it “absurd” and suggesting its declining power would benefit Russia.
Orban, a nationalist in power since 2010, made the comments during a speech in which he predicted a shift in global power away from the “irrational” West towards Asia and Russia.
“And we Westerners have pushed the Russians into this bloc as well,” he said in a televised address to Hungarians at a festival in the town of Baile Tusnad in neighboring Romania.
Orban, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, has sharply diverged from the rest of the bloc by seeking warmer relations with Beijing and Moscow and angered some EU leaders when he made surprise visits to Kiev, Moscow and Beijing this month for talks on the war in Ukraine.
He said that in contrast to the “weakness” of the West, Russia’s position in world affairs is logical and predictable, saying the country has shown economic flexibility in adapting to Western sanctions since it invaded Crimea in 2014.
Orban, whose own government has passed a number of anti-LGBT measures, said Russia has gained influence in many parts of the world by fighting LGBTQ+ rights.
“The strongest international appeal of Russian soft power is its opposition to LGBTQ people,” he said.
He added that Ukraine will never join the EU or NATO because “we Europeans don’t have enough money for that.”
“The EU must give up its identity as a political project and become an economic and defense project,” Orban added.
The EU opened accession talks with Ukraine late last month, although the country has a long and tough road ahead of it before it can join the bloc.
A statement at the end of a NATO summit this month said the alliance would support Ukraine on its “irreversible path” to membership.
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