Event report

We mark the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Hungary and Ukraine. To this end, the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade organized an offline event entitled “30 Years of Neighborliness: the Ups and Downs of Hungarian-Ukrainian relations“ on 1 December, 2021. As it was stressed out, the aim of this meeting was to step back from the ongoing negotiations and daily difficulties and rather look at our strategic relationship with Ukraine objectively. The invited experts covered the last 30 years of relations as well as the possibilities for future cooperation in the years ahead of us. The invited speakers were the following: Anton Bendarjevskiy, Director of Research Danube Institue, Attila Demkó, PhD Head of the Center of Geopolitics in Mathias Corvinus Collegium and a special guest from Ukraine, Dmytro Tuzhnanskyi, Director of Institute for Central European Strategy. The discussion started with the opening statements of Márton Ugrósdy, Director of the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade and György Ilyash, Research Fellow at IFAT. Márton focused on the initial, very positive relations between the two countries. He pointed out that Hungary was among the first ones to recognize the independence of Ukraine and to open an embassy in Kiev. He believes that to make the next 30 years different from the last four, we should focus on what connects us, instead of our differences. György added three briefing points that could guide us in understanding the relations between Hungary and Ukraine. Firstly, he pointed out the problem of miscommunication and misinterpretation of Hungarian initiatives in Ukraine, steaming from political debates. Secondly he spoke about the difference in our foreign policy priorities and thirdly he added that we should pay attention to the third party mediators, who are often one-sided and don’t serve our interests in having closer relations with each other. After this introductory part the three invited experts began by sharing their thoughts about the last 30 years of neighborliness. There was a mutual agreement between the analysts that the strained relationship between the two countries is a rather new phenomenon. It is important to see that we started from a very good point which was sensible both in the frequency of the political meetings and in great gestures from both sides to ease the situation of Hungarian minority in Zakarpatska region. Moving on to the past couple of years, opinions were somewhat divided over the severity of current relations. Dmytro had a positive attitude, he feels that even with the tensions in the last four years, we are still at a pretty balanced level, with no real ups and downs. On the other hand Anton called the last years as a dead-end and said that the relations between the countries are currently bad by default. Attila also agreed that we are at the low point of our relations, he supported his words by personal experiences of his visits to Beregszász or Ungvár earlier in comparison with today. Focusing on the next thirty year all the analysts agreed that something needs to be done to strengthen the bilateral relations. They also agreed that the timing is not perfect, because of the upcoming elections in both Hungary and Ukraine, however if there is no change now, we could find ourselves at an ever lower point. All three experts articulated their views on the educational law which will be effective from 2023, however there were different views on how it will affect the Hungarian minority. The analysts had some constructive ideas on what should we do differently in the next thirty years. To highlight a few of these: we should clear out our history and the biased image of each other, we should have high-level meeting between our officials, and we should realize that the 3rd parties do not necessarily want us to get along. Also on a more strategic note, there should be more cooperation in the energy sector and the transit traffic coming from Ukraine. Finally it seems that all the invited experts agreed that it would be beneficial for Hungary to support Ukraine’s NATO and EU integration, however for that Ukraine needs to understand how important the language and national symbols are for Hungarians living in Ukraine.