From 1989, Hungary's top foreign policy goal was achieving integration into Western economic and security organizations. It joined thePartnership for Peace program in 1994 and has actively supported theIFOR andSFOR missions in Bosnia. It also improved its often frosty neighborly relations by signing basic treaties withUkraine,Slovakia, andRomania. These renounce all outstanding territorial claims and lay the foundation for constructive relations. However, the issue ofethnic Hungarian minority rights in Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine periodically causes bilateral tensions to flare up. Hungary since 1989 has signed all of theOSCE documents, and served as the OSCE's Chairman-in-Office in 1997. Hungary's record of implementingCSCEHelsinki Final Act provisions, including those on the reunification of divided families, remains among the best in Central and Eastern Europe.
Except for the short-livedneutrality declared by theanti-Soviet leaderImre Nagy in November 1956,Hungary's foreign policy generally followed theSoviet lead from 1947 to 1989. During theCommunist period, Hungary maintained treaties of friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance with theSoviet Union,Poland,Czechoslovakia, theGerman Democratic Republic,Romania, andBulgaria. It was one of the founding members of the Soviet-ledWarsaw Pact andComecon, and it was the first country to withdraw from those organizations. After 1989, it began to orient more towards the West, joiningNATO in 1999 and theEuropean Union in 2004. In 2010, Hungary initiated its Eastern Opening Policy, marking a commitment to enhancing its relations with other nations within the Global East.[3]
As with any country, Hungarian security attitudes are shaped largely by history and geography. For Hungary, this is a history of more than 400 years of domination by great powers—theOttomans, theHabsburg dynasty, theGermans duringWorld War II, and the Soviets during theCold War—and a geography of regional instability and separation from Hungarian minorities living in neighboring countries. Hungary's foreign policy priorities, largely consistent since 1990, represent a direct response to these factors. From 1990, Hungary's top foreign policy goal was achieving integration into Western economic and security organizations. Hungary joined thePartnership for Peace program in 1994 and has actively supported theIFOR andSFOR missions inBosnia. TheHorn government achieved Hungary's most important foreign policy successes of the post-communist era by securing invitations to join bothNATO and theEuropean Union in 1997. Hungary became a member of NATO in 1999,[6] and a member of theEU in 2004.[7]
Hungary also has improved its often frosty neighborly relations by signing basic treaties withRomania,Slovakia, andUkraine. These renounce all outstanding territorial claims and lay the foundation for constructive relations. However, the issue of ethnic Hungarian minority rights in Slovakia and Romania periodically causes bilateral tensions to flare up. Hungary was a signatory to theHelsinki Final Act in 1975, has signed all of the CSCE/OSCE follow-on documents since 1989, and served as the OSCE's Chairman-in-Office in 1997. Hungary's record of implementing CSCEHelsinki Final Act provisions, including those on the reunification of divided families, remains among the best in eastern Europe. Hungary has been a member of theUnited Nations since December 1955.
This involves Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and was agreed on September 16, 1977 ("Budapest Treaty"). The treaty envisioned across-border barrage system between the towns Gabčíkovo,Czechoslovakia and Nagymaros, Hungary. After an intensive campaign, the project became widely hated as a symbol of the oldcommunist regime. In 1989 theHungarian government decided to suspend it. In its sentence from September 1997, theInternational Court of Justice stated that both sides breached their obligation and that the 1977 Budapest Treaty is still valid. In 1998 the Slovak government turned to the International Court, demanding the Nagymaros part to be built. The international dispute was partially solved in 2017.
On March 19, 2008, Hungary recognizedKosovo as an independent country.[8]
The U.S. election on 5 November 2024 resulted in a landslide Republican victory. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán loudly and consistently proclaimed that he not only expected Trump to take back the presidency but heartfully wished him to do so. Thanks to Orbán's unwavering support towards Trump, the personal relationship between the two statesmen has become impeccable, especially during the Biden administration when U.S.-Hungarian relations hit rock bottom.[14]
Viktor Orbán at the 8th Summit of the Organization of Turkic States
A number of Hungarian anthropologists and linguists have long had an interest in theTurkic peoples, fueled by the eastern origin of the Hungarians' ancestors.[15] The Hungarian ethnomusicologistBence Szabolcsi explained this motivation as follows: "Hungarians are the outermost branch leaning this way from age-old tree of the great Asian musical culture rooted in the souls of a variety of peoples living from China through Central Asia to the Black Sea".[16]
Since the political transformation in 1990, Hungary has prioritized its diplomatic engagements with the Turkic world.[17] in 2018, Hungary became an observer within theOrganisation of Turkic States, underscoring a deepened engagement in regional cooperation.[18]
Both countries established diplomatic relations in 1864, during the time of theAustro-Hungarian Empire. Diplomatic relations were established between Hungary and Mexico in 1925 and were suspended in 1941. They were re-established on 14 May 1974.
Normal bilateral relations between Hungary and the U.S. were resumed in December 1945 when a U.S. ambassador was appointed and the embassy was re-opened.
On 31 August 2012, Armenia severed relations with Hungary following the extradition ofRamil Safarov.[187] On 2 December 2022, Armenia and Hungary restored diplomatic relations.[188]
There are around 15,000 people ofArmenian descent living in Hungary.
Officials from Hungary regularly visit China on trade missions, a factor that helped enable the buyout of distressed Hungarian chemical maker Borsodchem by the Chinese companyWanhua Industrial Group.[189]
The establishment of diplomatic relations between Hungary and the Republic of Korea began on 1 February 1989.
Hungary and South Korea have good relations.
Permanent missions between the two countries were announced during the1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. The announcement made Hungary the first Eastern Bloc country to exchange ambassadors with South Korea.
Sri Lanka has an embassy in Vienna, Austria that is accredited to Hungary[209] and has an honorary consulate in Budapest[210] Hungary maintains an honorary consulate inColombo, Sri Lanka.[211] Hungary contributed to relief after the2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, and has since stepped up aid to Sri Lanka.[212]
Turkey has an embassy in Budapest[218] and an honorary consulate inKeszthely.
Both countries are full members of theCouncil of Europe, theOECD, theNATO, theOSCE and theWTO. Also, Hungary is anEUmember and Turkey is acandidate. Hungary supports Turkey's accession negotiations to the EU, although negotiations have now been suspended. Hungary is also an observer nation in theTurkic Council.
Both countries have historical ties dating back to the 16th century. Hungary hosts a number of Ottoman-era monuments in cities such as Budapest, Eger, and Pécs.
Austrian-Hungarian relations are the neighborly relations between Austria and Hungary, two member states of the European Union. Both countries have a long common history since the ruling dynasty of Austria, the Habsburgs, inherited the Hungarian throne in the 16th century. Both have been part of the now-defunct Austro-Hungarian Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. The two countries established diplomatic relations in 1921, after their separation.
Austria has an embassy in Budapest.
Hungary has an embassy inVienna and a consulate-general inInnsbruck.
Hungary recognised Finland on August 23, 1920. Finland recognised Hungary on September 10, 1920.
Finland broke off diplomatic relations on September 20, 1944.
Diplomatic relations were re-established on May 20, 1947.
Both national languages,Finnish andHungarian, areUralic languages, which has led to cultural exchange albeit at a much smaller scale compared to the third major Uralic-speaking country, Estonia.
Finland has an embassy in Budapest and an honorary consulate inPécs.[226]
The Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia (today Lombardy, Veneto, South Tyrol, Trentino and Friuli-Venezia Giulia in Italy) and Hungary were crownlands of theAustrian Empire.
Both countries legalized homosexuality while opposing same-sex marriages, and outlawed LGBT propaganda towards minors since 2013 (Russia) and 2021 (Hungary) respectively.
Both countries have an ethnic minority from the other state: in Hungary there are around 3,000Ethnic Slovenes, and in Slovenia there are around 7,713Ethnic Hungarians.
In December 2010, theFidesz government adopted a press and media law which threatens fines on media that engage in "unbalanced coverage".[256] The law aroused criticism in theEuropean Union as possibly "a direct threat to democracy".[256]
In 2013, the government adopted anew constitution that modified several aspects of the institutional and legal framework in Hungary. These changes have been criticized by theCouncil of Europe, theEuropean Union andHuman Rights Watch as possibly undermining the rule of law and human rights protection.[257]
^Higgott, Richard A.; Cooper, Andrew Fenton (1990). "Middle power leadership and coalition building: Canada, the Cairns Group, and the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations".International Organization.44 (4):589–632.doi:10.1017/S0020818300035414.JSTOR2706854.S2CID153563278.
^Memoria del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (in Spanish). 1930. p. 545.
^Kolontári, Atilla (2010).Hungarian-Soviet Relations, 1920-1941. Social Science Monographs. p. 156.
^Foreign Assistance and Related Agencies Appropriations for 1972: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Ninety-second Congress, First Session. Vol. 2. 1971. p. 839.
^Foreign Assistance and Related Agencies Appropriations for 1972. Vol. 24. Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Ninety-second Congress, First Session. 1971. p. 842.
^"Diplomatic relations between Palestine and Hungary".Palesztin Állam Nagykövetsége – Budapest. Retrieved21 November 2024.Hungary recognized the state of Palestine after the Declaration of Independence in 1988, where it elevated the level of representation to an embassy with all the privileges.
^Bozóki, András (2002).The Roundtable Talks of 1989: The Genesis of Hungarian Democracy : Analysis and Documents.Central European University Press. p. 265.
^ab‘The New Press and Media Act in Hungary’ (concerning the December 2010 law), by Kai Ekholm and Tarja Svärd-Ylilehto. ifla.org, 5 October 2012. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
Borhi, László, "In the Power Arena: U.S.-Hungarian Relations, 1942–1989,"The Hungarian Quarterly (Budapest), 51 (Summer 2010), pp 67–81.
Glant, Tibor, "Ninety Years of United States-Hungarian Relations,"Eger Journal of American Studies, 13 (2012), pp 163–83.
Hornyak, Arpad.Hungarian-Yugoslav Diplomatic Relations, 1918–1927 (East European Monographs, distributed by Columbia University Press; 2013) 426 pages.
Niklasson, Tomas. "Regime stability and foreign policy change: interaction between domestic and foreign policy in Hungary 1956-1994" (PhD dissertation Lund University, 2006)online.
Váli, Ferenc A, "The Foreign Policy of Hungary" in Kuhlman, James A (ed.),The Foreign Policies of Eastern Europe: Domestic and International Determinants (Sijthoff, Leyden, 1978).