Vance to visit Hungary for talks with Orban days before election
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Vice President J.D. Vance is set to visit Hungary on April 7–8 for bilateral meetings with Prime Minister Viktor Orban and to deliver remarks on U.S.–Hungary relations.
Second Lady Usha Vance will accompany him on the trip, according to a statement from his office.
The visit is scheduled just days before Hungary’s upcoming parliamentary election.
The trip follows President Donald Trump’s recent public endorsement of Orban in a lengthy social media post. In that post, Trump described Orban as “highly respected” and “a truly strong and powerful leader with a proven track record of delivering phenomenal results.”
Orban, widely seen as one of the European Union’s most Kremlin-friendly leaders, has drawn criticism for his stance on Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine and his government’s increasingly hostile rhetoric toward Kyiv.
Hungary has repeatedly leveraged its veto power within the European Union to stall sanctions on Russia and aid for Ukraine, a move experts say is aimed at extracting political and financial concessions from Brussels.
Orban continues to oppose the loan despite all 27 EU countries unanimously agreeing in December to provide the loan to cover two-thirds of Ukraine's needs over 2026–2027.
Kyiv, which relies on foreign assistance to keep the state afloat and fund its war effort, remains risk of running out of cash by the end of spring unless a resolution or other funding can be found.
