Orbán Gets Cozy with Xi Over Ukraine Peace Plan During Unannounced China Trip

Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian Prime Minister, pulled a fast one today by hanging out with Xi Jinping, the big cheese of China, in Beijing to chat about a potential way to chill things out in Ukraine. This little get-together comes hot on the heels of Orbán's controversial tête-à-tête with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which had the EU peeps raising their eyebrows.

They met up at the swanky Diaoyutai State Guest House, according to what the Chinese news is saying. Orbán called this shindig the third part of his "peace mission," which is basically him playing peacemaker without asking the EU or Ukraine if it's cool first.

Now, even though Hungary is kinda in charge of the EU's rotating gig right now, Orbán's been playing his own game, hopping from a meet-up with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv to a cozy chat in the Kremlin. This has not gone down well with his European buddies.

On his fancy X account, he's all like, "Peace Mission 3.0, baby!" Basically, he's questioning if all that military gear the West is sending Ukraine is really helping, and flaunts his bromance with both Xi and Putin.

China's been pushing for a six-step plan to make everyone hold hands and sing kumbaya, which they cooked up with Brazil back in May. It's all about having a big peace pow-wow when the time's right, with Ukraine and Russia sitting at the same table.

Orbán's solo trip is definitely making waves and showing that Hungary's not just following the EU's script anymore. It's like he's going rogue and playing nice with the big players outside the usual European clique.

This whole shebang has the EU scratching their heads, trying to figure out if they're all still on the same page about Ukraine and who they're pals with on the global stage. Orbán's definitely stirring the pot with his solo diplomacy moves.