"Technical reasons"

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(Bild: AP)

Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto (Fidesz) was supposed to meet with Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in Budapest on Monday - but the Green politician had to cancel at short notice. The Hungarian side emphasized that this was not for political reasons.  

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had traveled to Russia's President Vladimir Putin shortly after taking over the EU Council Presidency, angering Western partners. Critics in EU countries accused him of going it alone without coordination. The USA also sharply criticized Orban's trip. However, the Hungarian government apparently has no time for the planned meeting with the German minister.

Annalena Baerbock(Bild: APA/AFP/Lehtikuva/Kimmo Penttinen)

Meeting "hopefully in the near future"
"Due to an unforeseen change in the minister's schedule, the Foreign Ministry has requested that the visit take place at a later date, hopefully in the near future," the Foreign Ministry in Budapest announced on Saturday. "The reason is purely technical and not political."

Circles at the Foreign Office in Berlin had expressed surprise at the disinvitation on Friday. "A serious and honest personal discussion between the two foreign ministers would have been very important in view of Prime Minister Orban's surprising and uncoordinated trip to Moscow," they said.

Many Western government politicians have made themselves scarce in Hungary in recent years due to Orban's pro-Moscow policies and his efforts to dismantle democracy.