00:00And to talk more about this meeting, I'm joined by our International Affairs Editor, Angela Diffley.
00:05Angela, let's specifically talk about this meeting. What exactly is it all about?
00:11Well, we heard Marco Rubio saying very clearly, Donald Trump is committed, deeply committed to your success.
00:19He said to Viktor Orban, your success is our success.
00:23This is all about showing support for Viktor Orban. Nakedly, Donald Trump wants him to win.
00:31You know, Viktor Orban, for the first time in 16 years, is facing something of a serious challenge.
00:37And his Fidesz party could well lose out in these parliamentary elections on April the 12th.
00:43Petr Madjar is likely looking at the polls to win this thing.
00:48And so this is an important visit.
00:50That said, it can sometimes be counterproductive for outsiders to show their support for a country's leaders.
01:01Particularly, you know, this is a nationalist party.
01:04By its very nature, a nationalist party wants its own sovereignty, does not like too much interference from the outside.
01:10So this thing might not be a very good idea. We will see.
01:14But for the United States, you know, they have very much enjoyed having Viktor Orban at the heart of the
01:19European Union, pushing back against any measures which might harm the United States.
01:25And generally being what is openly called a member of the leader of the awkward squad within the European Union.
01:31He is pretty anti, pretty Eurosceptical for a European Union leader and can be relied upon to stick up for
01:41what he believes in, even if it is counter to the rest of the European Union.
01:46So he is a threat to European unity on occasions.
01:50That pleases Donald Trump.
01:52And he pushes back against measures which might harm the United States.
01:55Also on the agenda will be the issue of energy.
01:59Hungary has an exemption from tariffs.
02:03The White House sanctioned countries that were importing Russian oil and gas.
02:09Hungary, because of this special relationship with Trump, was given an exemption.
02:13It has been receiving Russian oil.
02:16And a pipeline, it goes via Ukraine, a pipeline has been damaged, Ukraine says, by the Russians.
02:22And Orban says the Ukrainians are delaying repairing it because they're trying to exert pressure on him because he frequently
02:30fails to back any kind of movements against Russia.
02:34Now, after he finishes this visit, Marco Rubio will be heading back to Washington.
02:38Are US-European relations still the same as a result of this trip?
02:44It hasn't had an enormous impact and nobody really expected it to.
02:49There was some relief that at least Marco Rubio was polite, not as dismissive, as antagonistic, as rude, as many
02:57people found J.D. Vance a year ago.
03:00He's much more of a natural diplomat.
03:03That said, the messages were much the same.
03:06He talked a lot about Europe and the US working together to save Western civilisation that was under threat from
03:14mass migration.
03:15That is not something Europe as a whole recognises.
03:18European leaders do recognise that mass migration has created problems, that they need to do better in dealing with them.
03:25But the idea that the entire Western or European civilisation is being eroded by immigrants is not something European leaders
03:32buy into.
03:33And neither do they appreciate being told so from people in the United States who don't always visit Europe or
03:39know much about Europe.
03:40On NATO, there was a little reassurance in that Rubio said that the United States would always be a continuing
03:49presence in Europe.
03:51That is something of a reassurance.
03:53But, you know, since Davos, and especially since Greenland and the unbelievable to and fro from Donald Trump on Greenland,
04:04nothing will ever be the same again, or certainly not for generations.
04:08Europe cannot trust the United States, cannot trust Donald Trump.
04:12And the Danish Prime Minister made very clear that Donald Trump appears not to have changed his position on Greenland
04:17at all.
04:18So nothing much has changed.
04:20Angela Diffley, thank you.
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