The Duran Podcast
Orban diplomacy in China
All right, Alexander, let's talk aboutor Ban's diplomatic effort to broker some sort of a peace deal in Ukraine. He went to Kiev, then he went to Moscow, then he went to China, and he will now be in the United States meeting with all the NATO members, maybe meeting with Biden, and discussing things with Biden, if that's possible, given what's going on with Biden, but maybe he'll meet with Trump while he's in the United States. Who knows? His foreign minister, Siyarto said that big things are coming this week, so Orban definitely has a vision. I don't know if you want to say it's a plan, but he has a vision as to how to to push a peace process forward. In Kiev, he did not get a very good response. In Moscow, I believe he did get a good response, and in China, he got a good response. In the United States, I imagine he's going to be shunned at the NATO meeting. I imagine the Biden camp is not going to want to hear anything about Siyarto in peace, but he will have Trump. If he does meet with Trump and his people, Trump will be very receptive to what Orban has to say. So what are your thoughts? I look at all of this with a sense of relief and what Orban is doing, and with also a sense that finally, finally, we are seeing somebody in the West do actual diplomacy. Because this is what diplomacy is. You have a conflict. You have two powers, Ukraine and Russia, that are fighting each other, and he understands, and understands very well, that this is very bad for Europe. He said as much that it's affecting living standards in Europe, which is absolutely right. He says it's causing devastation and suffering in Ukraine, which is right also. And he is now president of the European Council, and he is doing what ought to have been done years and years ago, but which no other European leader seems able to do. So he talks to the two sides, the two sides that are actually fighting Ukraine and Russia. He hears what each of them has to say. He proposes ideas of his own, and then he goes to the two big stakeholders, China and the United States. And he tries to find out what they are thinking, and to see whether a way can be found forward, which is what mediators do, by the way. Mediators don't come with ready-made plans. That's not the way mediation happens. You talk to everybody. You find out what everybody says. You open lines of communication between them. You try to encourage everybody to talk to everyone else, and out of that process, if it's handled well, then sometimes an agreement is found. I've done it myself. I was good at it. An odd barn from the look of it is absolutely good at it, and he is doing it in the right way. Now, the Europeans are oven arms and furious with him. The Americans, as you absolutely rightly say, the Democrats, the Biden administration are going to give you the cold shoulder. I am sure myself am sure that he's going to talk to Donald Trump, because Donald Trump, who is, let's remember, a negotiator, somebody who's worked with mediators before. He's a deal maker. He's even written a book about this, the art of the deal. He understands this, even though no one else in the West seems to do. And maybe, just possibly, after maybe November, more plausibly January, if Trump is indeed elected, we might actually see something happen. I think this is, again, great courage, all done doing all of this, in spite of the deluge of criticism that's been reigned on his head. And he's doing it in exactly the right way. I would almost say the textbook way that a proper mediator should follow in order to try and seek a solution. I don't, myself, think this mediation effort is going to succeed, because the forces arrayed against it are too strong, but he deserves full marks for Trump. And you're talking about November, January timeframe, to see any result come out from this mediation, who knows what's going to be happening in Ukraine by then. So, yeah. And of course, we have the US elections, who knows what's going to happen there as well. So we do have a lot of unknowns. Do you think that at the NATO meeting, or upon, we'll find some countries more willing now to talk about a ceasefire, to talk about negotiations, to talk about talking to Russia, to acknowledge that they need to talk to Russia. I mean, it's a big taboo that that Arbonne has broken by actually traveling to Moscow and speaking with Putin. And I'm putting it out there on all social media. Everyone saw the photos, everyone saw the images, everyone understood what they discussed. And they went to China, which is also given all of the nasty rhetoric from NATO, now directed at China. He also broke a taboo there as well. I mean, do you think he'll find some some receptive ears in NATO, from some NATO member states, with regards to his diplomacy efforts? Or do you think he's just going to hit a wall? Maybe he's going to hit a wall in the countries. He's going to hit a wall at this NATO summit meeting. I mean, the dominant attitude of the big countries, Germany, France, Britain, the United States, Poland, all of those, Spain, is that they want to actually not only continue the war in Ukraine, but they want to proof it against Trump. I mean, they want to make it impossible to achieve peace. They want to, you know, lock in funding and military support for Ukraine in case Trump is elected. And there's now a big article, I think it's in Politico, about how the, you know, the globalist integrationist grouping in Europe are even looking at developing a nuclear deterrent force for Europe to prepare for, you know, the time when Trump is elected. So that's going to be the dominant line that's going to come out of this NATO summit meeting. And the big players are going to be very, very hostile to all of them, indeed. They're not going to even really, I think, want to entertain him at all. But quietly, the doubts are growing. And I think in Italy, the Maloney government is gradually shifting its position. I think it understands perfectly well that Ukraine is losing the war, that it's conscious also of the shifts in Italian public opinion, which have never really been as supportive of Project Ukraine, as has been true in some of the other big NATO countries. I think in France, where we just had parliamentary elections, you can spin and talk about these parliamentary elections, an enormous detail. But note again that the parties that did well in these elections, the National Rally and, you know, the dominant faction, or at least the biggest faction, or the most public faction of the new popular front left-wing party movement that's, you know, emerged first. They too are opposed to support for Project Ukraine. Milan Sean, the leader of the French left, even talks about an alliance with Russia. That's his line. So France might start to distance itself from this project. They might be sniffing around, looking at this also. And then you have elections in Austria, which the freedom party is likely to win. You have Slovakia, which is already straightforwardly, and openly supporting what Orban is doing. So not to add this NATO summit meeting, at this NATO summit meeting, as I said, he's going to come up against a wall of opposition. But going forwards, the tide is turning in his favour. And I forgot to mention, of course, Turkey, which is a NATO member state. And Turkey straightforwardly agrees with Orban. Yeah, I agree with you. This NATO summit is going to be very difficult for Orban. But I think he knows that. I think he fully understands that. And that's why he has some more surprises up his sleeve. And I wouldn't be shocked if that surprise is after the NATO summit meeting with Trump. They do get along quite well, Trump and Orban. That would anger the Biden White House. I don't know if it would anger Biden himself, but it would anger Jake Sullivan and Flickett. Yeah, they would be furious about this. But you know, talking about Orban, one of the most interesting things about Orban, one of his great strengths is that he gets all this abuse, this abuse, and criticism, and all that. He doesn't care. I mean, he doesn't, he doesn't care what Ursula von der Leyen or Kiers Starmer or all of these people say about him. It doesn't seem to, it doesn't seem to concern him. And he just goes on doing whatever it is he wants, he feels he needs to do. And he carries on unaffected. Notice how basically he's ignored all the criticism. I mean, it's not as if he's really bothered to respond to it. He simply says these people are talking nonsense. And I'm just going to go ahead and do what I wish. And that already makes him different from pretty much every other European leader you can think of. Most of them care massively what the others say about them. Orban doesn't. And that's what makes him strong. That's one of the things that makes him strong. Yeah, he shouldn't care. Because the reality on the ground is proving him right. With each passing game, the developments on the ground is proving him correct. Not only on the ground, not only with the conflict, but also the economic situation that's unfolding. It's proving him correct. It's proving them wrong. All of them. All of them. Exactly. And of course, outside the West, he is gaining a lot of respect because he's finally doing that, which all two have been done years ago. I mean, he's actually engaging in some straightforward classical diplomacy. Diplomacy is diplomacy was once conducted and should be again. And not by the bite of White House, not by leaders because these aren't diplomats. I mean, and Alina can't probably even say diplomacy. I mean, Blinken, Blinken's the worst diplomat I think we've seen in the last 100 years. Yeah, only surpassed by Vladimir Zelensky, who is in terms of bad diplomats and the legal on his own. Yeah, but at least he has an excuse. He was a comedian. What does he know about it? He could always say, you know, he came out of the comedy world, the acting world. Yeah, Blinken has no excuse. I'll find a question. This is the second meeting between Orban and Xi Jinping in three months. Yeah, I wonder if if they discussed other topics outside of Ukraine, maybe well, I don't know, maybe SCO, maybe BRICS. Who knows? Who knows? I mean, very likely they did actually. I'm just throwing it out there. I mean, very likely they did notice the Xi Jinping, very willing to meet with Orban. The meeting, this whole tour, clearly carefully prepared in advance. He was careful to go to Moscow and Beijing when he knew that both Putin and Xi Jinping would be able to meet him. So, you know, they have gone out of their way to smooth the way for Orban. And obviously, Ukraine is partly, I'm sure it's the main issue, but no doubt they're talking about other things too. Economics, geopolitics, BRICS, Asian development, Eurasian development, banks, Eurasian security arrangements, all of those things. Of course, they are. All right, we will end the video there. The Duran dot look was dot com. We are on rubble at a sea picture, telegram, rock fin and twitter X and go to the Duran shop. 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