EU distances itself from Orbán after he attends Organization of Turkic States meeting

The EU stated that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's attendance at the informal summit of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) in the city of Shusha, Azerbaijan, was solely based on bilateral relations between Hungary and the organisation. Source: a statement by Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, as reported by European Pravda Details: Borrell stressed that Hungary commenced its rotating presidency of the EU Council on 1 July, which will last until 31 December.

However, the EU's chief diplomat emphasised that this presidency does not entail responsibilities for the EU's external representation, which is the responsibility of the president of the European Council at the level of head of state or government and the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy at the ministerial level.

"Hungary has not received any mandate from the EU Council to advance the relations with the Organisation of Turkic States," Borrell stated. He further added that the EU rejects the attempts of the OTS to legitimise the Turkish Cypriot separatist entity, the so-called internationally unrecognised "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus", as an observer in the organisation.

"This decision, pending ratification of Organisation's members, is regrettable and is contradicting the fact that several members of the Organisation expressed strong support to the principle of territorial integrity and the UN Charter," Borrell said. The EU has repeatedly made it clear, including at the highest political level, that it recognises only the Republic of Cyprus as a subject of international law in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, he concluded.

Established in 2009, the OTS brings together Turkic-speaking states. Hungary has been an observer in the organisation since 2018. Background:

• On Friday, Viktor Orban arrived in Moscow as part of his "peacekeeping mission".

  His visit to Russia took place just a few days after his visit to Kyiv on 2 July.

• At the time, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell stressed that the Hungarian prime minister's visit was solely in the framework of bilateral relations between Hungary and Russia and not the presidency of the Council of the European Union.

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