New Room for Maneuver with Flourishing Hungarian-American Relations

The rebuilding of Hungarian-American relations, which have reached a low point in recent years, will also give the government’s policy new room for maneuver, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in Komárno (Révkomárom, Slovakia) on Thursday. At a podium discussion at the celebration of the Benedictine commemorative year of the Selye János High School, the minister spoke about the new US administration and national policy.

Péter Szijjártó underlined that relations between Hungary and the United States have reached a low point in the last four years, after the previous administration in Washington “carried out all kinds of misdeeds” against Hungary, such as the cancellation of the double taxation agreement. He said the Democratic Party leadership also had different views on the war in Ukraine, for example by supplying tens of billions of dollars worth of arms, which only prolonged the conflict.

Anyone who tried to argue for peace was immediately labelled a spy for Putin, a friend of Lavrov, or even a propagandist for the Kremlin,”

he emphasized.

He welcomed the fact that the world has changed a lot since then, with the new US president pursuing a very different policy, for example measures to curb migration and aggressive LGBTQ propaganda, and cutting off funds for foreign political interference, bringing a new era in world politics. He said that as a result of all this, there is currently a strong fear among European leaders, but it is not difficult to see that peace would help the continent’s economic development, as Hungary alone, for example, has suffered 7,500 billion forints (18.3 billion euros) in financial losses due to the war and sanctions.

Szijjártó pointed out that

the Hungarian and the new US leadership share similar views on the most important problems facing the world, and that there is a good personal relationship between Viktor Orbán and Donald Trump.

As a result, the parties are strongly committed to rebuilding the Hungarian-American system of relations.

In this context, he also mentioned the strategy of economic neutrality, under which Hungary has become an important meeting point for Eastern and Western investors, as cooperation between these companies is working well in practice. “That is why I also hope that Donald Trump, as a real deal-maker, a man who has also made successful decisions in business, will be able to conclude agreements with major players in the world economy that will ultimately culminate not in trade wars but in major global cooperation,” he emphasized.

Regarding Hungarian-Slovak relations, the minister said that national policy is at the heart of Hungarian foreign policy, and the government has a responsibility to ensure that the fate of Hungarian national communities abroad is in order.

Every Hungarian is responsible for every Hungarian,”

he underlined. The better the cooperation with a neighboring country, the better the situation of the Hungarian national community living there, he pointed out, adding that the government is therefore striving for normal cooperation with all its neighbors.

“This has been more or less – more than less – successful. With Ukraine, these efforts have clearly failed, because practically over the past ten years, the Ukrainian governments in office have continuously violated and suppressed the rights of the Hungarian and other national communities,” he said. At the same time, he cited Slovakia, Romania, and Serbia as a counter-example, with which we can speak of an “absolute success story” and with which countries a strategic alliance and friendship has been built up instead of the former, sometimes hostile, relations.

Via MTI, Featured photo via MTI/Krizsán Csaba