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| - Downing Street on Thursday defended upcoming talks between British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Hungarian leader Viktor Orban as "vital" to UK interests, while rejecting his nationalist and anti-immigrant views. Johnson is due to host the right-wing premier on Friday, as Hungary prepares to take over the presidency of the Visegrad bloc of central European countries in the run-up to a G7 summit in southwest England starting on June 11. "Cooperation with Hungary is vital to the UK's prosperity and security," Johnson's official spokesman told reporters, noting the Visegrad connection to Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The meeting is an opportunity "to promote UK interests in these areas and discuss issues in the wider region", he said. Under Orban, Hungary has irritated its partners in the European Union by blocking tougher language on issues including Israel and China. Asked about Orban's past comments, such as claiming that Europe is threatened by a Muslim "invasion", the spokesman added: "On all human rights issues, we do not shy away from raising them. "The PM (Johnson) has condemned those specific comments, which were divisive and wrong." Johnson himself has come under criticism for offensive rhetoric, including one newspaper column in 2018 in which he described Muslim women who wear the burqa as looking like "letterboxes" and "bank robbers". Islamophobia within Johnson's governing Conservative Party continues to be a problem at both an individual and local association level, an independent investigation concluded on Tuesday. jit/phz/cdw
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