Polish president cancels meeting with Hungary’s Orban over Russia visit

Karol Nawrocki (Photographer: Wojtek Radwanski/AFP/Getty Images)

Poland’s nationalist President Karol Nawrocki has cancelled a planned meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban over his much-criticized talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Warsaw said on Sunday.

Orban took fierce flak from European leaders for going to Moscow for a hours-long meeting with Putin on Friday, their fourth since Moscow launched Europe’s worst conflict since World War II by sending troops into Ukraine.

Nawrocki’s party meanwhile has faced questions over its relationship with Orban’s Hungary back in Poland, a staunch Kyiv ally which shares a border with Ukraine.

“In connection with the visit to Moscow carried out by Prime Minister Viktor Orban and its context, President K. Nawrocki decided to limit the program of his visit to Hungary,” Polish Secretary of State Marcin Przydacz wrote in a post on X.

Nawrocki’s meeting, which was set to begin on Wednesday, will now be limited “exclusively to the summit of the presidents of the Visegrad Group in Ostrzyhom”, referring to the alliance of central European countries, Przydacz added.

Orban has long taken a friendlier stance on Moscow than many of his European counterparts, challenging EU sanctions on Russia and defying attempts to block sales of Russian oil and gas.

Nevertheless, Orban’s Hungary has maintained close ties to Poland’s right-wing Law and Justice party, which endorsed Nawrocki in his bid for president.

Marcin Romanowski, a former official in the Law and Justice government, received asylum from Budapest after facing 11 corruption charges in Poland.

More recently, former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who also served under the Law and Justice government, left for Hungary before he could be hit with similar charges.

Following Sunday’s cancellation, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga described Nawrocki’s change of plans as “a very good decision.”

“It demonstrates Poland’s fundamental stance and its strong sense of solidarity, reaffirming its commitment to the unity and security of Europe at a critical moment,” he wrote in a post on X Sunday evening.