The Washington Times: Orbán’s US visit to end ‘diplomatic isolation’

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s upcoming talks in the United States “will mark the end of a decade-long period of high-level diplomatic isolation of Hungary”, former US Ambassador to Hungary April Foley wrote in an article published in The Washington Times on Sunday.

Orbán’s meeting with US President Donald Trump, scheduled for Monday, “is widely applauded by friends of Hungary, like myself, who hold that keeping our allies close should be a prime strategic goal of U.S. foreign policy,” Foley said.

Foley said that

“during the Obama years” central and eastern European countries “rightfully felt neglected, while the U.S. administration’s efforts to reset relations with Russia overwrote long-standing friendships America had cultivated on Europe’s edge.”

She went on to say that “U.S. meddling in Hungary’s domestic affairs and its criticism without engagement left a deep scar on bilateral relations”.