BUDAPEST - Hungary has cancelled a foreign ministers meeting with Germany scheduled for Monday in Budapest due to technical, not political, reasons, its Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

"Due to an unforeseen change in the minister's calendar, the foreign ministry has requested that the visit take place at a later date, hopefully in the near future," the ministry said.

"The reason is purely technical and not political."

The German foreign ministry said on Friday that it was "astonished" by the cancellation and that a "serious and honest" discussion was needed after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

The Moscow meeting was the first meeting of an EU leader with Putin in Moscow since April 2022, two months after Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The meeting angered some European Union leaders who warned against appeasing Moscow and said Orban did not speak for the EU.

  - Reuters