Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán reiterated his admiration for former US President Donald Trump after they met in Florida on Friday, calling the Republican tycoon the “president of peace”.

“We Hungarians have only one thing to do, and that is to honestly admit: The world would be better and it would be better for Hungary if Mr. President Donald Trump were to return (to power),” Orbán said in statements can be heard on a video during his meeting with Trump at the tycoon’s residence in Mar-a-Lago.

During Trump’s tenure in the White House, there was peace in the Middle East and Ukraineand these wars would not exist today if (Trump) were the president of the USA, Orbán argued in a Facebook post.

Trump had “brought respect to the world and thus created the conditions for peace,” according to the Hungarian prime minister, who expressed hope that the Republican’s return to the White House would revive bilateral trade relations.

Trump is seeking a second term as president and will enter the fray in the upcoming US presidential election in November.

In a campaign appearance in Pennsylvania last night, current US President Joe Biden mocked the fact that Trump met the head of a government in Europe “who has categorically stated that he does not believe that democracy works”.

Trump and Orban planned to have dinner together and attend a concert, Orban’s spokesman Bertalan Havassi said, according to Hungarian news agency MTI. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, Peter Szijártó, was also present at the meeting.

Before their meeting, Orban also attended the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington and met with Trump’s former chief adviser, well-known far-right Steve Bannon.

Trump and Orbán regularly praise each other in public. Orban, Hungary’s prime minister since 2010, was the only EU leader to publicly voice his support for Trump even before he was elected US president in the 2016 election.

The two populists share common political ideologies, with Bannon once referring to the Hungarian prime minister as “Trump before Trump”.

The Republican tycoon has previously openly expressed his admiration for a range of authoritarian leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Orban also maintains good relations with Putin and frequently opposes Western sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.