Belarus leader asks Hungary’s Orban to visit and seeks a dialogue with EU amid country’s isolation

By YURAS KARMANAU
Associated Press

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The authoritarian president of Belarus has invited Hungary’s prime minister to visit his country. President Alexander Lukashenko extended the invitation to Prime Minister Viktor Orban at a meeting on Friday with Hungary’s foreign minister, who arrived in Belarus earlier this week. Belarus has faced increasing isolation in recent years over the government’s relentless crackdown on dissent and support of ally Russia’s war with Ukraine. Orban’s press chief says the prime minister will consider the invitation once he returns from a European Union summit in Brussels. Political analysts think Lukashenko is trying to decrease his dependence on the Kremlin. Hungary is the only EU member nation that still talks to authorities in Belarus.