Orban in Serbia: The best war is an avoidable war

The best war is the one that could be avoided, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday, adding that Serbia and Hungary, which have “many nice plans together,” face a serious challenge concerning the war in Ukraine.

Speaking at the launch of the Belgrade-Novi Sad stretch of the international Belgrade-Budapest railway together with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in Novi Sad, Orban said that many things had to be reassessed.

He underscored that his country was feeling difficulties in the wake of the war being waged near Hungary’s eastern borders.

“Regardless of all difficulties, I promise that we will keep the Hungarian-Serbian friendship alive. We will keep the peace, because war destroys, while peace builds. We will realise all plans with your president in this peace,” Orban said.

He underscored that the friendship between the two nations has never been closer than it is today.

Vučić said the new railway “will further bring the Serbians and Hungarians closer, Budapest will be only two, two and a half hours away from us.“

“I can only imagine how much it will affect the quality of life when a student from Belgrade is able to travel to Novi Sad for classes. This is a new Serbia,” added Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić.

The construction of the 75 kilometre-long Belgrade-Novi Sad railroad for 200-kilometre-an-hour trains began in 2017 and cost $935 million.

Orban pledged that, though Hungary was currently a little behind on the project, the 350 kilometre-long rail link between Belgrade and Budapest would be completed by 2025.