Why Hungary Matters, and Why the Trump Putin Orban Meeting Changes Everything

This week the headlines turn to Donald Trump meeting Vladimir Putin in Budapest. The host is Viktor Orban, a man who has spent more than a decade reshaping Hungary in his own image, building what he calls illiberal democracy. To understand why this meeting matters, you first need to understand Hungary.

Hungary sits between East and West, both in geography and in strategy. Orban keeps the country inside the European Union and NATO, but he works closely with China and Russia. He uses the protection of Western institutions while building economic and political ties with the East. Hungary plays both sides, and for now it works.

Budapest has become a stage for something much larger than diplomacy. The meeting between Trump and Putin on Hungarian soil shows how the world is shifting away from old alignments. Hungary has turned itself into a bridge, or perhaps a testing ground, for what a multipolar world looks like when power is shared and sovereignty is defended.

If you want to understand what this moment really means, you need to understand Orban, and to understand Orban, you need to understand Hungary.

My full report, Magyarország útja: Hungary’s Sovereign Path Between East and West, explains how this small Central European nation became the meeting point of global powers. It covers Hungary’s strategy inside the EU and NATO, the truth about BRICS, and the deeper reasons why Budapest now matters more than most people realise.

To see the whole picture, read my report.