The Trump administration sees the former Hungarian leader as a joint candidate from Washington, Moscow, and Beijing, the paper has reported<\/p>\n
The administration of US President Donald Trump is pushing for former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to become the next UN secretary-general, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
\nMembers of Trump\u2019s team have already reached out to Orban, who is open to the idea but will only run if there is confidence that he can secure the job, the paper said in an article on Sunday.
\nThe US believes that Russia and China would also support the former Hungarian leader, who would be seen as a joint candidate from the three countries, a State Department official told the outlet.
\nThe term of current UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expires on December 31. AP reported last week that none of the seven candidates to replace him, including Costa Rica\u2019s Rebecca Greenspan, Guyana\u2019s Carolyn Rodriguez Birkett, and the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi of Argentina, currently have the required support of all five permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC): China, France, Russia, the UK, and US.<\/p>\n
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The Trump administration considers Orban to be \u201cthe dream MAGA-conservative candidate,\u201d who has the right ideology and knows how to exercise authority, according to the WSJ\u2019s sources.
\nOrban, who left office in Hungary after 16 years in power this May, used to describe his rule as an \u201cilliberal democracy.\u201d The 63-year-old politician has been a harsh critic of EU\u2019s policies, repeatedly clashing with Brussels over his moves against mass migration, a clampdown on left-wing NGOs, resistance to the LGBTQ+ agenda, and other issues.
\nHe was one of the few European leaders to maintain contacts with Moscow after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, insisting on Hungary continuing to purchase Russian energy and decrying Western sanctions as counterproductive. The former Hungarian leader also consistently advocated stronger economic cooperation between the EU and China.
\nOrban has called Trump a \u201cgood friend\u201d and visited the US to back the Republican\u2019s presidential campaign in 2024. The US president endorsed Orban ahead of this year\u2019s Hungarian election and sent Vice President J.D. Vance to Budapest to campaign for him, although the move did not help to deliver victory.<\/p>\n
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A State Department official estimated that Orban would \u201ccomfortably\u201d get eight votes in the 15-member UN Security Council, with two more also being within reach. Permanent members the UK and France, who could stand in the way of majority support for Orban, usually use their veto power cautiously, the WSJ stressed.
\nTrump has been increasingly unhappy with the UN during his second term, saying that the global body hasn\u2019t come close to reaching its \u201ctremendous potential.\u201d
\nRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last month that Moscow expects the new UN secretary-general to represent the interests of all mankind, not just a small group of Western nations as happened under Guterres. Lavrov also said several of the candidates possessed the qualities needed to be effective in the role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Trump administration sees the former Hungarian leader as a joint candidate from Washington, Moscow, and Beijing, the paper has reported The administration of US President Donald Trump is pushing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t