Four out of mind: Hungary reconvenes Visegrad Group
Budapest is hosting the first Visegrad Four summit in two years, which, in addition to Hungary, includes Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. It will be held on June 23. New Prime Minister Peter Magyar, who replaced Viktor Orban, is seeking to shape the country's foreign policy in a different way. The politician does not exclude that the format will eventually expand due to the addition of new participants. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
For the first time in two years
"Budapest will host the Visegrad Group Prime Ministers' summit, to which Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico have been invited. I will propose to them to expand cooperation within the framework of the Visegrad Four," said Peter Magyar.
Peter Magyar
He believes that "Austria, Germany, Romania, Slovenia and Croatia can be invited to the format to develop cooperation in the fields of infrastructure, economy and culture," as well as "create a joint strong Central European community." In addition, the politician allowed the inclusion of Scandinavian countries and Western Balkan states that have not yet joined the EU.
"Today, the heart of Europe is beating in Central Europe, and we must work together to ensure that this continues for as long as possible and that this heart beats as strongly as possible," stressed the head of the Hungarian government.
Foreign Minister Anita Orban added that she considers the forum to be quite significant both from an economic and political point of view. In particular, it implies building cooperation with Prague and Bratislava, as well as normalizing relations with Warsaw.
Restoring relationships
At the beginning of the month, Peter Magyar made his first foreign visits to EU countries, during which he tried to actively show that after he came to power, Hungary was no longer a "naughty child of the European Union." He has already succeeded in getting Budapest out of isolation within the EU.
The European Commission announced the beginning of the unblocking of funds from European funds that were frozen under the government of Viktor Orban. At the same time, the Hungarian authorities lifted their veto on the actual start of negotiations on Kiev's accession to the European Union. In return, Budapest received an extension of the rights of the Hungarian minority living in Transcarpathia.
In Europe, Magyar met with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron.
In addition, the Hungarian Prime Minister stressed that Budapest is ready to make a diplomatic contribution to the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine and could become a place for negotiations between Moscow and Kiev. At the same time, Magyar emphasized that Hungary "is still dependent on Russian oil." "We have not had economic growth for many years, and for growth we need affordable energy," he added.
In the beginning there was a triangle
The Visegrad Group appeared in 1991 at a meeting between Polish President Lech Walesa, Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel and Hungarian Prime Minister Jozsef Antal. All three states were parties to the Warsaw Pact and were experiencing the collapse of the system of socialist republics. One of the goals of the group's creation was to integrate into European society as soon as possible.
As a result, Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and the Visegrad Triangle became the four. In 2004, all these countries joined the EU.
The platform helped the states to coordinate their position in the European Union, gradually gaining more and more influence within the union. During the migration crisis of 2015, the Visegrad Four came to the forefront of European politics, demonstrating their unwillingness to immediately comply with Brussels' directives: the governments of these states refused to allow migrants distributed according to quotas to enter their territories.
They insisted on the need to tighten migration controls at the borders of the European Union and eventually achieved their goal. After that, they took a common position on overcoming the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Ukrainian conflict has divided the "four". If Poland perceived what was happening as an existential threat to Europe's security, Budapest considered the situation to be a regional conflict between Moscow and Kiev.
In February 2024, at the Prague summit, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the then head of the Czech government, Petr Fiala, criticized Viktor Orban, accusing him of a "pro-Russian position," after which the work of the Visegrad Four was actually suspended.
Poland's special role
The Visegrad Four have an advisory format in which meetings are held to check hours, Dmitry Officer-Belsky, head of the Baltic Region Integrated Research Group at the IMEMO RAS, noted in an interview with Izvestia. The organization has practically no own financing, institutional bureaucratic staff, etc.
— Everything is tailored for meetings of leaders or relevant ministers on various issues. There are broader formats in the region in which work is actually underway and in which there is funding. For example, this is Troemorye (the Three Seas Initiative)," the expert explained.
In his opinion, at the upcoming meeting of the Visegrad Four, the parties will discuss a very wide range of issues, starting from Ukraine and continuing with issues of regional, domestic security and drone production.
— Infrastructure issues will definitely be touched upon, because there is an active construction along the North–South line. Traditionally, the transport infrastructure in this region was built on the East–West principle and served to a large extent the transshipment of goods from Europe to Russia and post—Soviet countries and vice versa," said polonist.
In the context of the construction of the North–South infrastructure, the specialist drew attention to its dual purpose. It is assumed that it can also be used for the transfer of armies, weapons, equipment, ammunition, etc.
Officers-Belsky also added that Turkey will host a NATO summit in early July, and the states of the region, primarily Poland, are trying to show that they have their own regional vision of how it should be held and what decisions should be taken.
— In fact, this is an imitation of a certain common position, which actually does not exist, but the countries of the Visegrad Group are still trying to demonstrate at least an imitation of this. In general, this is a traditional feature of Polish foreign policy, when before major international summits they try to gather an entourage from Central and Eastern European countries in order to demonstrate their special role in this region," the political scientist summed up.
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