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Hungary wields considerable influence in Central and Eastern Europe and is a middle power in international affairs.[1][2] The foreign policy of Hungary includes commitments to international development, international law, European integration, Atlantic co-operation and increased co-operation within the Global East.[3] The Hungarian economy is fairly open and relies strongly on international trade.
Hungary has been a member of the United Nations since December 1955 and holds current membership with the European Union, NATO, the OECD, the Visegrád Group, the WTO, the World Bank, the AIIB and the IMF. Hungary took on the presidency of the Council of the European Union for half a year in 2011 and the next will be in 2024. In 2015, Hungary was the fifth largest OECD Non-DAC donor of development aid in the world, which represents 0.13% of its Gross National Income. In this regard, Hungary stands before Spain, Israel or Russia.
Hungary's capital city, Budapest is home to more than 100 embassies and foreign representative bodies.[4] Hungary hosts the main and regional headquarters of many international organizations as well, including European Institute of Innovation and Technology, European Police College, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, International Centre for Democratic Transition, Institute of International Education, International Labour Organization, International Organization for Migration, International Red Cross, Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, Danube Commission and even others.[5]
From 1989, Hungary's top foreign policy goal was achieving integration into Western economic and security organizations. It joined the Partnership for Peace program in 1994 and has actively supported the IFOR and SFOR missions in Bosnia. It also improved its often frosty neighborly relations by signing basic treaties with Ukraine, Slovakia, and Romania. These renounce all outstanding territorial claims and lay the foundation for constructive relations. However, the issue of ethnic Hungarian minority rights in Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine periodically causes bilateral tensions to flare up. Hungary since 1989 has signed all of the OSCE documents, and served as the OSCE's Chairman-in-Office in 1997. Hungary's record of implementing CSCE Helsinki Final Act provisions, including those on the reunification of divided families, remains among the best in Central and Eastern Europe.
Except for the short-lived neutrality declared by the anti-Soviet leader Imre Nagy in November 1956, Hungary's foreign policy generally followed the Soviet lead from 1947 to 1989. During the Communist period, Hungary maintained treaties of friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance with the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Romania, and Bulgaria. It was one of the founding members of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact and Comecon, and it was the first country to withdraw from those organizations. After 1989, it began to orient more towards the West, joining NATO in 1999 and the European 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]
- ^ Solomon S (1997) South African Foreign Policy and Middle Power Leadership Archived at the Wayback Machine (archived 26 April 2015), ISS
- ^ 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. JSTOR 2706854. S2CID 153563278.
- ^ a b Péter, Dániel (2015). "The Eastern Opening - An Element of Hungary's Trade Policy". Retrieved 20 December 2023.
- ^ "Embassies in Budapest". 123embassy.com. 2014. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
- ^ "International organizations in Hungary". Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 20 November 2016.