Hungary cancels talks with German top diplomat Baerbock

Hungary has cancelled planned talks between its foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, and Germany's top diplomat Annalena Baerbock, the German Foreign Office said on Friday evening.

Baerbock had originally been scheduled to travel to Budapest on Monday. The trip will be rescheduled at a later date, the Foreign Office said, adding that it regrets the move.

Baerbock's ministry said that "a serious and honest personal discussion" between the two ministers would have been "very important" in light of Hungarian Prime Minster Viktor Orbán's surprise visit to Moscow earlier on Friday.

Orbán met Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Friday, holding two-and-a-half hours of talks amid strong criticism of the surprise visit from top EU officials and European leaders.

Several EU officials stressed that the Hungarian leader had no official EU mandate for negotiations with Russia, and that it had nothing to do with Hungary assuming the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union.

The right-wing populist leader, often a thorn in the side of Brussels over a range of issues, is seen as closest to Moscow among European Union leaders.

During a joint appearance with Putin after the talks, Orbán once again called for efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Ukraine war.