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Hungary FOREIGN POLICY
In the 1980s, Hungary has attempted to carve out a
semiindependent role for itself within the Soviet alliance
system in
Eastern Europe. The origins of the Hungarian position lay
in the
regime's efforts to promote economic reform, which
required
Western involvement and support. The regime also sought to
create
popular support for itself by providing an abundance of
consumer
goods supplied by the West. For reasons of history and
tradition,
Hungary cultivated ties with Austria and the Federal
Republic of
Germany (West Germany). In the mid- and late 1980s,
Hungary also
attempted to further relations with Britain and the United
States. In addition, as further evidence of its initiative
in
foreign policy, Hungary developed relations with Israel,
China,
and the Republic of Korea (South Korea), which had
previously
been considered "pariah" states by most East European
states.
Hungary's most important ally was the Soviet Union,
with
which it has enjoyed particularly good relations since
1986, when
Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev initiated his reform
programs.
In the late 1980s, Hungary strongly supported Soviet
foreign
policy positions. In return, Hungary received Soviet
support for
its efforts at domestic reform. Hungary also accepted
integration
into the alliance system through the Council for Mutual
Economic Assistance
(Comecon--see Glossary) and the
Warsaw Pact (see Glossary).
Relations with its other communist neighbors played a
crucial
role in Hungarian foreign policy. The state of relations
between
Hungary and Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia
generally
depended on how these countries treated their Hungarian
minorities. Because Yugoslavia treated its Hungarian
minority
well, relations between the two countries were excellent.
In
Czechoslovakia, the relation between Slovaks and ethnic
Hungarians were not smooth. Through bilateral contacts,
Hungary
sought to encourage the Czechoslovak government to improve
its
treatment of Czechoslovakia's Hungarian minority. However,
Romania's treatment of the Hungarian minority in
Transylvania
received worldwide condemnation. Hungary sought, through a
variety of bilateral and multilateral efforts, to
encourage more
equitable treatment of Hungarians in Romania.
Data as of September 1989
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