Robert Palladino’s tenure as Chargé d’Affaires in Budapest is ending as Ambassador-designate Benjamin Landa prepares to take over. Bryan Leib praised Palladino’s professionalism and his efforts to strengthen the US–Hungary alliance in a heartfelt farewell message on X.

‘Even in 2015, when the PiS government came to power, individuals with communist pedigrees were still numerous within the less visible but essential layers of state administration, the judiciary, the economy, NGOs, and the media. Today these networks are returning…The goal is clear: to maintain control over social and state institutions regardless of electoral outcomes.’

The government will begin talks with municipalities in January on reforming the solidarity contribution system, but no changes are considered realistic before the elections, Minister Tibor Navracsics said in an interview published on Tuesday.

The Hungarian Institute of International Affairs’ first EastSec Forum examined Europe’s shifting security landscape amid the Russo–Ukrainian war. Speakers, including HIIA President Gladden J Pappin and Zachary Paikin of the Quincy Institute, stressed Hungary’s growing mediating role, the collapse of post–Cold War security structures, and the need to rebuild guarantees for lasting peace.

Mathias Corvinus Collegium hosted a major conference in Budapest on the global drug epidemic, warning that the narcotics industry, backed by vast networks, is undermining communities. Experts stressed prevention, youth protection, and international cooperation as key to resisting drug normalization and crime.

Hungary has become China’s most important economic partner in Europe outside the EU, with nearly a third of all Chinese investment headed to Europe last year arriving in Hungary, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Tuesday in Budapest.