The Trump administration is floating former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as a joint US-Russia-China candidate for UN secretary-general, according to the Wall Street Journal.
US officials have directly approached Orbán and encouraged him to run, with sources in Washington, Moscow, and Beijing confirming support for the bid, the newspaper reports. A State Department official acknowledged the idea may sound far-fetched but noted that Russia and China have signaled openness to backing him. “If the United States, Russia and China want the same thing in the UN Security Council, they usually achieve it,” officials from the US and another country told the WSJ.
Orbán, who lost power in Hungary’s April election after 16 years, has maintained close ties with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping. His hard-right, anti-migration, and eurosceptic policies strained relations with Western allies, including the EU and NATO. Since his defeat, Hungarian authorities have launched fraud and corruption investigations into his former government, with two ex-ministers and the former central bank governor under arrest.
The current secretary-general, António Guterres, ends his second term on 31 December. A candidate needs at least nine votes in the 15-member Security Council and must avoid a veto from any of the five permanent members: the US, Russia, China, France, and the UK. The WSJ reports Orbán would only run if victory were assured, a scenario currently seen as unlikely.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha mocked the proposal on X, writing that Orbán would “put to good use the masterful veto and blackmail skills he has developed over years of derailing major EU decisions.” He added that Ukraine could share its “great experience of taking him out for coffee at the right moment.”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Alimov confirmed Orbán remains technically eligible, as the nomination deadline has not passed. He responded to the WSJ report by stating there are “no restrictions” on his candidacy. Orbán has declined to comment, while his spokesperson previously dismissed similar reports as “fake news.”
