(Bloomberg) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that he’s confident that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will cease to block Sweden’s accession to NATO. He also sounded confident that Orban will wave through a €50 billion ($54.5 billion) support package for Ukraine at an extraordinary EU summit next week.
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“I expect that we will have all the necessary decisions together very soon,” Scholz said before a meeting with Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico in Berlin on Wednesday evening. “That’s a good signal because it will also strengthen our common military alliance.”
The German Chancellor expressed hope that all 27 EU member states will approve support measures for Ukraine. Orban had torpedoed a joint European decision on a four-year financial package for Ukraine in mid-December, making it necessary to hold an extra summit.
Fico reiterated his refusal to send military aid to Ukraine, saying he doesn’t believe in a military solution and that more weapons would only prolong the conflict. “The only change would be that the cemeteries on both sides will be filled with tens of thousands more soldiers,” he said. Slovakia’s nationalist premier, whose foreign policy views are similar to those of his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban, said he’ll support any peace solution.
Fico, who became prime minister last October, had originally planned to meet Scholz in Berlin in December, but that meeting was postponed when the German Chancellor got Covid.
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