Hungarian President Official Visit to Romania after 12 Years

The Hungarian President, Katalin Novak, come to Romania on an official visit at the invitation of President Klaus Johannis to the Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest.

For 12 years, no Hungarian president has come to Romania on an official visit, and now, in 2022, on the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Strategic Partnership between the Government of Romania and the Government of the Republic of Hungary, the political leaders of Hungary and Romania met in Bucharest to discuss the current issue of great importance for the neighbouring states.

In a press conference held on September 7, the two highlighted topics such as the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis, the bilateral aid between Hungary and Romania, and the rights of ethnic Hungarian citizens on the territory of Romania.

The issue of Hungarian minorities in Romania has been the subject of many contradictory discussions for years in Romanian and Hungarian politics. The Hungarian president did not insist on this topic, stressing that the Hungarian people are a united people and the state supports its Hungarian citizens in Romania. President Klaus Johannis reported that there is no discrimination against Hungarian citizens in Romania and that better collaboration with the Hungarian state is being pursued on this topic.

There were recent controversies regarding Romania’s Hungarian people in the Romanian press. The most recent event in which Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited the region of Transylvania, Romania and made some statements on racial issues caused great controversy in Romanian public opinion and politics. The political leaders did not insist on this subject.

However, although the policy that Viktor Orban has pursued against some EU decisions since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the topic of the energy crisis brought the presidents of Hungary and Romania together in discussions regarding bilateral aid. The presidents of Romania and Hungary discussed the enlargement of the European Union and coordinated measures at the Union level to respond to the current energy crisis.