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Reaching 5 pct NATO defence spending ‘not easy’: Hungary
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says the EU needs new budget regulations to realistically reach NATO defence spending goals.
Reaching 5 pct NATO defence spending ‘not easy’: Hungary
Hungarian PM Orban says Russia is not strong enough to pose a real threat to Europe. / Reuters
17 hours ago

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban calls for a revision of the EU's budget regulation framework, warning that no member state would be able to meet NATO’s 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) defence spending target under the current rules.

Speaking ahead of NATO leaders’ meeting in The Hague, Orban said the 5 percent target is reachable, though it would not be easy.

"It's not easy, but the whole calculation of budget regulation of the European Union must be changed," he told reporters.

"If we keep the regulation as it is, nobody in the European Union can fulfil 5 percent. So we have to recalculate everything in a different method."

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Economic threat

Orban says the biggest threat Europe faces today is not military, but economic.

"The real threat is not security-wise, it's economic and losing our competitiveness in global trade."

"I think Russia is not strong enough to pose a real threat to us. We are far stronger," he added.

On Ukraine, he said: "NATO has no business in Ukraine. Ukraine is not a member of NATO, nor is Russia. My job is to keep it as it is."

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SOURCE:AA
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