Hungary's Orban says Trump strategy grasps Europe's 'civilisation-scale decline'

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FILE PHOTO: Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban attends a bilateral lunch hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 7, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

FILE PHOTO: Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban attends a bilateral lunch hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 7, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

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BUDAPEST, Dec 11 - The new National Security Strategy of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration shows that America understands Europe's "civilisational-scale decline", Hungarian Prime ‍Minister ​Viktor Orban wrote on X on Thursday.

In ‍a sweeping strategy document published last week, Trump said the United States could ​reassess ​its relationship with Europe, and that the continent faces "civilizational erasure" and must change course.

The document caused shock across Europe, but Orban, ‍a long-time Trump ally, called it "the most important and most interesting ​document of recent years".

He ⁠said it showed Washington had grasped that Europe reached an "economic dead end" and that its values, democracy and free market were all in danger.

Orban also said ​the U.S. administration understood that Europe needed to rebuild its relationship with Russia "at ‌a strategic level".

Orban has maintained ​close ties to Moscow even since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, and has often criticised European Union sanctions against Russia.

"America has a precise understanding of Europe’s decline. They see the civilisational-scale decline that we in Hungary have been fighting against for fifteen years. ‍At last, we are not fighting against it alone," Orban ​said.

Last month, the United States granted Hungary a one-year exemption from U.S. ​sanctions for using Russian oil and gas after ‌Orban pressed his case for a reprieve during a cordial meeting with Trump in Washington. REUTERS

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