(LifeSiteNews) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán called on the United States to seek peaceful relations with China to avoid war as its status as the planet’s leading superpower begins to wane.
During a speech at the Tusványos Summer University conference on July 22, Orbán argued that the decline of the U.S. and the growth of China has created “a particularly dangerous period in the history of humanity,” one that will require “the big boys” to recognize that “there are two suns in the sky.”
“What we are seeing today is a steady decline in American dominance on the world stage. And no preeminent world power will take kindly to that sort of thing,” he remarked. “Day by day we are moving towards conflict … regardless of the current balance of power, the opposing sides should recognize each other as equals.”
🇭🇺@PM_ViktorOrban in his annual speech at the #Tusványos Festival has specified the goals that #Hungary must stand by:
In major global affairs: be sensible!
In the world economy: establish connections!
In the EU debates: fight!
In intellectual matters: endure!
In… pic.twitter.com/gMeFf8VtE9
— Balázs Orbán (@BalazsOrban_HU) July 24, 2023
Orbán has spoken at the conference, which was held in Romania, since at least 2014, as many ethnic Hungarians reside in the region. After coming to power in 2010, he has turned his roughly 10 million strong, majority Catholic nation into a bulwark against globalism and multiculturalism, infuriating open borders politicians across the world but especially those in the European Union. Many so-called national conservatives, or “post liberals,” have taken up residence in Hungary in recent years, resulting in numerous pro-family, anti-LGBT, and Christian-oriented laws being implemented.
Orbán’s speech Saturday was not so much something you’d hear at a political rally, but rather a carefully argued, philosophically and historically rooted lecture about current geopolitical realities — and how Hungary should understand them in order to ensure it continues down the path of peace and prosperity.
“The settling of the new equilibrium will not happen overnight – or even from one month to the next,” Orbán predicted. “The settling of such a new equilibrium will take a whole generation. This means that not only will we live our lives within this global system of relations, within this world era, this zeitgeist: so too will our children … we must shape our Hungarian national plans with this in mind.”
Orbán explained that America previously warded off threats to its global hegemony, first with Soviet Russia and later the European Union. But thanks to diplomatic efforts with China in the 1970s, it created a monster it can no longer control.
“Back then, the U.S. decided to free China from its isolation, obviously to make it easier to deal with the Russians … [but] as a result of that liberation, the United States – and all of us – are now facing a greater force than the one we wanted to defeat,” he said.
“We are talking about the return of a 5,000-year-old civilization of 1.4 billion people,” he exclaimed. “And this is a problem that needs to be solved, because it is not going to solve itself. China has become a production powerhouse.”
The issue of a multi-polar, post-American world has been a point of discussion among geopolitical commentators for many years. Panel discussions at the World Economic Forum and international think tanks have proposed plans for such a situation. Orbán did not fail to touch on those points in his remarks, nor did he fail to express serious concerns with a China-led realignment, though he urged American lawmakers to not escalate tensions.
“An even more unpleasant truth is that the current trends favor Asia and China – be those trends in economics, technological development, or indeed military power. A still more unpleasant truth is that changes are also taking place in international institutions … whoever creates international institutions will thereby gain an advantage from them,” he said. “So, China has quite simply created its own: We see the BRICS and the One Belt One Road Initiative; and we also see the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the development resources of which are several times greater than the development resources of all the Western countries.”
“You can see that there is a conveyor belt of high-level American officials going to Beijing,” he continued, “which is a sign that in the United States they see the danger and the trouble. The Secretary of State has been there, the Treasury Secretary has been there, and – most recently – the former national security adviser Mr. Kissinger has been there.”
Orban urged Hungarians to recognize that while they “have not been dealt a hand” in the “card game” of the world’s leading superpowers, they can and must protect their Christian heritage as the rest of Europe becomes increasingly hostile to traditional values and open markets.
Annual speech at the Bálványos Free Summer University and Student Camp in Tusnádfürdő. Europe has created its own political class, which is not accountable, and has no democratic or Christian convictions. Because of this, we have no choice. We have to fight! We don’t want… pic.twitter.com/VLPvwZ9POz
— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) July 22, 2023
“One should be shrewd in major world affairs, build connections in the world economy, fight in EU disputes, persevere in spiritual matters, and remain steadfast in national unification,” he said. “God above us all, Hungary before all else!”