Russian President Vladimir Putin will be visiting Hungary for the first time in two years on Oct. 30 to discuss topics ranging from energy policy to cooperation on diplomatic issues with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. In what will be one of the most important foreign policy events in the country this year, strict security will be in place across the capital, including the closure of main and alternative routes to and from Budapest’s airport.
Ahead of the visit, conservative daily Magyar Hírlap gave an overview of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán’s top-level meetings so far this year, showing a fairly busy schedule. In addition to the regular visits to Brussels on account of the country’s EU membership, Orbán’s most important meetings so far this year were the following:
In January, the Hungarian prime minister attended the induction of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, followed a few months later by the Budapest visit of Eduardo Bolsonaro, president of the Brazilian parliament’s foreign and defense committee.
In March, Orbán attended the 20th-anniversary celebrations of Central European countries joining NATO, during which he also had a separate meeting with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawieczki.
In April, he met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at a China-Central European Initiative meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Also in April, Orbán met Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China in Beijing.
In May, he received then Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini in Budapest.
Also in May, in what was a sign of marked improvement in U.S.-Hungarian relations, Orbán met President Donald Trump in the White House.
In August, Orbán met German Chancellor Angela Merkel to celebrate 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In September, he met Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and Finnish Prime Minister Annti Rinne, who currently holds the revolving presidency of the European Union, in Budapest.
This month, Orbán visited French President Emmanuel Macron and also met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at an international conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Title image: Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s meeting last year in Budapest (source: Magyar Hírlap)
