The European Union needs closer cooperation on markets and defence, but not on political issues such as migration, where major differences between countries make this impossible, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said September 6 in Cernobbio, Italy. Orban also said that his visits to Kyiv and Moscow earlier this year, which some European Union partners criticised, led him to conclude that there was no intention on either side to make peace and reach a ceasefire in right now. But the Hungarian leader said communication lines must be open on both sides if Europe wants to end the war in Ukraine. Hungary, which has maintained close ties to Russia since Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, has held the EU’s rotating six-month presidency since July, soon after which time he made surprise visits to Moscow and Beijing before attending a NATO summit in Washington. His self-styled “peace mission” drew sharp criticism from some EU leaders who distanced the bloc from his actions.