Foreign relations of Hungary
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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 central European country to withdraw from those organizations, now defunct.
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--the Ottomans, the Habsburg dynasty, the Germans during World War II, and the Soviets during the Cold 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. Since 1990, Hungary's top foreign policy goal has been achieving integration into Western economic and security organizations. Hungary joined the Partnership for Peace program in 1994 and has actively supported the IFOR and SFOR missions in Bosnia. The Horn government achieved Hungary's most important foreign policy successes of the post-communist era by securing invitations to join both NATO and the European Union in 1997. Hungary became member of NATO in 1999, and member of the EU in 2004.
Hungary also has improved its often-chilled neighborly relations by signing basic treaties with Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine. 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. Hungary was a signatory to the Helsinki 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 CSCE Helsinki Final Act provisions, including those on reunification of divided families, remains among the best in eastern Europe. Hungary has been a member of the United Nations since December 1955.
The Gabčíkovo - Nagymaros Dams project, involving Hungary and Czechoslovakia, was agreed on September 16, 1977 ("Budapest Treaty"). The treaty envisioned a cross-border barrage system between the towns Gabčíkovo, Czechoslovakia and Nagymaros, Hungary. After intensive campaign the project became widely hated as a symbol of the old communist regime. In 1989 Hungarian government decided to suspend it.In its sentence from September 1997, the International 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 is still not solved as of 2008.
On March 19, 2008 Hungary recognized Kosovo as an independent country.[1]
Disputes - international: Ongoing Gabčíkovo - Nagymaros Dams dispute with Slovakia
Illicit drugs: Major trans-shipment point for Southwest Asian heroin and cannabis and transit point for South American cocaine destined for Western Europe; limited producer of precursor chemicals, particularly for amphetamines and methamphetamines
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[edit] Hungary and Central Asia
A number of hungarian anthropologists and linguists have long had an interested in Turkic peoples, fueled by the eastern origin of the Hungarians' ancestors. [2] The Hungarian ethnomusicologist Bence Szabolcsi explained this motivation as following: " 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".[3]
After the dissolution of the USSR, this scholarly and cultural interest naturally lead to Hungary's establishing relations with the newly independent Central Asian states, in particular Kazakhstan. The Hungarian scholar Tibor Tot concluded, based on cultural and DNA evidence, that a certain subgroup of Kazakhs in Kostanay Province (known as the Madjars[4] or Turgay Magyars[5]) is the one Central Asian community with the closest genetic relation to the Hungarians. The news was enthusiastically met in the official and diplomatic circles, and to celebrate this connection some events were held, including a Kazakh-Hungarian festival named "Meeting across centuries" (Russian: Встреча через века) that took place in 2007. [6]
[edit] Relations by country
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[edit] References
- ^ "Croatia and Hungary recognize Kosovo". The Associated Press. International Herald Tribune. 2008-03-19. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/19/europe/kosovo.php. Retrieved on 2008-09-21.
- ^ Róna-Tas, András (1999). Hungarians and Europe in the early Middle Ages: an introduction to early Hungarian history. Central European University Press. pp. 409-410. ISBN 9639116483. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=I-RTt0Q6AcYC.
- ^ János Sipos, Kazakh Folksongs from the Two Ends of the Steppe
- ^ A.Z. Bíró, A. Zalán, A. Völgyi, H. Pamjav, A Y-chromosomal comparison of the Madjars (Kazakhstan) and the Magyars (Hungary)
- ^ Hungary considers Kazakhstan as a strategic partner in Central Asia: Ambassador
- ^ В Костанайской области прошел казахско-венгерский этнофестиваль (A Kazakh-Hungarian ethnic festival took place in Kostanay Province), Express K, No. 126 (16274), 13.07.2007 (Russian)
- ^ Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: direction of the Hungarian honorary consulate in Yerevan
- ^ Commonwealth of Australia. "About the Australian Embassy in Hungary". http://www.hungary.embassy.gov.au/btps/aboutus.html. Retrieved on 23 December, 2008.
- ^ Hungarian consulate general in Sydney
- ^ a b Bilateral relations between Hungary and Indonesia
- ^ INDONESIAN EMBASSY BUDAPEST
- ^ Hungarian embassy in Hanoi
[edit] See also
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