Budapest, Hungary is getting ready for a historic event: as we have reported, US President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia have announced they would be meeting in the Hungarian capital to discuss a potential end to the Russo–Ukrainian war. Since the announcement, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine has also shown his willingness to join the talks.
The exact date and venue for the monumental meeting are yet to be determined. However, what is certain is that a sitting US President visiting Hungary, let alone for an event of such magnitude, is rare. So, we have collected all the previous occasions when our country had the honour of welcoming the incumbent POTUS.
Bill Clinton, 1994
While, as we wrote above, a US President having important discussions with another head of state in Budapest is rare, surprisingly, it is not unprecedented. Although this event is not the first on our list chronologically, we decided to list it first because of its striking parallels between the upcoming meeting between President Trump and President Putin.
In December 1994, President Clinton, President Boris Yeltsin of Russia, President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine, and Prime Minister John Major of the United Kingdom gathered in Budapest to sign the so-called ‘Budapest Memorandum’, an agreement by the parties to provide security assurances to Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan to have them join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. It was a way to get the three former Soviet nations to transfer the Soviet-era nuclear weapons stored in their newly independent countries to Russia.
George H W Bush, 1989
As for the first-ever visit by a sitting US President to Hungary, it took place in July 1989. 41st POTUS George H W Bush gave a speech to an excited crowd at Kossuth Square in the rain, as the country was going through the turbulent time of the regime change and the end of the Soviet rule over the country. After tearing up the copy of his pre-written remarks, President Bush lauded the democratic reforms taking place in Hungary and professed the affection of the American people towards Hungarians in a brief speech.
Bill Clinton, 1996
President Clinton must have really enjoyed the hospitality of our country, as he returned within less than two years. Of the 45 men who have served as Presidents of the United States, only three (soon to be four) have visited Hungary during their time in office, yet President Clinton has come here twice.
In January 1996, he spoke to US military personnel stationed at the Taszár Air Base in Southern Hungary, who were deployed on a NATO mission to help contain the Balkan wars ongoing at the time. This took place during the process of Hungary joining the NATO alliance, which eventually came about in 1999.
George W Bush, 2006
In June 2006, President George W bush followed in his father’s footsteps and came to the Hungarian capital for an official state visit. He did so to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Budapest Revolution, when the people of Hungary took up arms against the oppressive Soviet regime. President Bush met with his Hungarian counterpart, László Sólyom and then-Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány of Hungary as well.
In addition, President Theodore Roosevelt and President Richard Nixon have also travelled to Hungary, but only after they had left office. President Roosevelt even gave a speech before the National Assembly of Hungary in 1910.
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