Hungary and the Balkans

Abstract

As regards the Balkans, Hungary is one of the intermediary regions in Europe. At the same time, the Balkans is the tie-up territory between Turkey, one of the emerging regions today, and Hungary, which aims to cooperate with it. Being a NATO and EU member state it takes part in the geopolitical games that are played between the EU, Russia, the USA and some of the countries of the Islamic world. These dealings fundamentally determine tasks in Hungarian foreign policy, cultural policy, economic policy, security- and defence policy for the forthcoming decades. Hungary acts as a gate between Western Europe and the Balkans. This role used to be more dominant in previous centuries of Hungarian history than it is today, not least because the country's size and strength significantly decreased after the Trianon Treaty. Many of the historical, imperial reflexes have remained, but without any imperial gravity. Today we are just one of the intermediary regions that have relations with the Balkans and form a bridge to Europe. The accelerated alteration in the world order, the BRICS countries and the emergence of some important middle-sized states, such as Turkey, make adaptation inevitable for our country. This is what the policy of 'Eastern opening' is about.