Pakistan to be among world’s major powers, says Orban

BAILE TUSNAD, Romania: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Saturday forecast a shift in global power away from the “irrational” West towards Asia and Russia, predicting that Pakistan will be among one of the world’s future big powers.

“In the next long decades, maybe centuries, Asia will be the dominant centre of the world,” Orban said while also mentioning China, India, and Indonesia as the future big powers.

“And we Westerners pushed the Russians into this bloc as well,” he said in the televised speech be-fore ethnic Hungarians at a festival in the town of Baile Tusnad in neighbouring Romania.

He also said that Russia’s leadership was “hyper rational” and that Ukraine would never be able to fulfil its hopes of becoming a member of the European Union or Nato.

Orban, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, has sharply differed from the rest of the bloc by seeking warmer ties with Beijing and Moscow, and he angered some EU leaders when he went on surprise visits to Kyiv, Moscow and Beijing this month for talks on the war in Ukraine.

He said that in contrast to the “weakness” of the West, Russia’s position in world affairs was rational and predictable, saying the country had shown economic flexibility in adapting to Western sanctions since it invaded Crimea in 2014.

He added that Ukraine would never become a member of the EU or Nato because “we Europeans do not have enough money for that”.

“The EU needs to give up its identity as a political project and become an economic and defence pro-ject,” Orban added.

The EU opened membership talks with Ukraine late last month, although a long and tough road lies ahead of the country before it can join the bloc.

A declaration at the end of the Nato summit this month said the alliance will support Ukraine on “its irreversible path” towards membership.