Hungarian  Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks during a media briefing in Budapest,  Hungary, in this Dec 21, 2022 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

Hungarian  Prime Minister Viktor Orban has voiced his support for China's 12-point  proposal for a political settlement in the Russia-Ukraine crisis issued  on Friday, the one-year anniversary of the conflict.

In his opening speech at Parliament's spring session on Monday, Orban said "we need a cease-fire and the start of peace talks".

"I  see that most states support peace, and Hungary cannot isolate itself  from most of the world.… We consider China's peace plan important, and  we support it," he told lawmakers.

Orban,  who won a fourth consecutive term in April and is the country's  longest-serving prime minister, said his government is concerned about  the European Union's efforts to arm Ukraine with tanks and possibly  fighter jets. He warned that "the whole of Europe is sliding step by  step toward a war".

He  called on the lawmakers to advocate for peace. "They want to drag us  into this war, but I am calling on you not to yield to provocation," he  said.

Orban  has expressed his opposition to arms supplies, escalation and  sanctions, posting on Twitter: "If the #RussiaUkraineWar goes on, more  and more people will die. If the war goes on, the threat of  hyperinflation and economic turmoil will continue to haunt us. If the  war goes on, it can spread around the world. The solution:#ceasefire  #PeaceTalks."

His  positive response to China's position stands in contrast to comments  from leaders of the United States, NATO and the European Union, who cast  doubt on the proposal.

'Good' efforts

French President Emmanuel Macron has also welcomed the proposal.

"I  think the fact that China is engaging in peace efforts is good. I  myself will go to China in early April," he said on Saturday.

Ukrainian  President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he agrees with some points in the  Chinese proposal, while the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on  Monday that "any attempts to develop plans that will help transfer the  conflict to a peaceful course deserve attention".

China's  peace proposal for Ukraine represents the "perspective of a majority of  the world's population", which nominally supports Ukrainian territorial  integrity while wanting a cease-fire and an end to sanctions, Ian  Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy in  New York, tweeted on Friday.

Nathan  Robinson, the New Orleans-based editor of Current Affairs magazine,  said that the US claims "we follow Ukraine's lead on terms for ending  the war, but Ukraine gave a positive reaction to China's peace plan  while the US dismissed it". "US would prefer continuation of the  conflict over a peace brokered by China," he said in a tweet on Friday.

Georgi  Gotev, a former Bulgarian diplomat, and now senior editor of the  Euractiv news website, wrote Monday that "if Ukraine and Russia are to  end up at the negotiating table, China could indeed be a precious  partner".

"It  is also in the EU's interest if China could succeed, sometime soon, in  bringing together interlocutors who would never sit at the same table in  other circumstances," he wrote in a newsletter on China's proposal.