Hungary–Serbia Relations

Hungary and Serbia maintain diplomatic relations established between Hungary and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1921. From 1921 to 2006, Hungary maintained relations with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) (later Serbia and Montenegro), of which Serbia is considered shared (SFRY) or sole (FRY) legal successor.

History

Hungary and Serbia share a long historical contacts that have been characterized by periods of cooperation and conflict. Contacts begin with the immigration of Hungarian tribes to Pannonia around the 10th century. The first serious ties between Serbs and Hungarians came with the formation of the medieval Kingdom of Serbia and the Kingdom of Hungary. Daughter of Serbian ruler Uroš I Jelena married the son and heir of Stephen II around 1130 while marking the first dynastic marriage between the ruling families of the two countries.

Later, the Hungarian princess Catherine became the wife of King Stefan Dragutin, while his brother, the later King Stefan Milutin, married the Hungarian princess Elizabeth. Serbian Prince Stefan Lazarević had a great alliance with King Sigismund of Luxembourg and formed the knightly Order of the Dragon. He also received Belgrade as a gift in 1403, which then became the Serbian capital for the first time. During the defense against Turkish attacks, especially during the siege of Belgrade in 1456, the Hungarian hero John Hunyadi stood out, who is mentioned in many Serbian epic poems as ''Sibinjanin Janko''. King Matthias Corvinus was a great friend of the Serbs and helped the Serbian states in their defense against the Turkish invasion. After the fall of Smederevo in 1459, he accepted thousands of Serbian refugees into Hungary and allowed the descendants of Đurađ Branković to bear the title of despot while fighting under the Hungarian flag. One of them was the famous Black Army commander Vuk Grgurević-Branković, known as Vuk the Fiery Dragon, a friend of Matthias Corvinus who conquered Sarajevo and brought thousands of Serbian refugees from Bosnia to Syrmia. Hungarian and Serbian refugees fled from Ottoman occupations, and used to be part of the famous Winged Hussars, a military regiment of the previous Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

However, relationship between two states turned tense in the later half of the 19th century, with the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbia and Serbian interests toward Bosnia and Herzegovina and Vojvodina, both having significant Serbian population. As part of Austria-Hungary, the Hungarian army took a significant part of the invading army on Serbia at the World War I. After the war, Hungary lost Vojvodina, a former territory of the Kingdom of Hungary, to Serbia.

Hungary signed a non-aggression and Treaty of Eternal Friendship with Yugoslavia in 1940. However, Hungary participated in the Axis invasion on Yugoslavia which prompted the then Prime Minister of Hungary Pál Teleki to commit suicide. In the communist era, Yugoslavia's Josip Broz Tito was against the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and supportive of Soviet military uses against Hungarians; but the suppression of Hungarian protesters by Soviet army might have influenced Tito's decision to change against the Soviets at the Prague Spring a decade later.

The relationship between Serbia and Hungary went downhill in the 1990s, when Yugoslavia started to disintegrate. Hungary was one of the earliest supporters of newly independent Croatia and allowed Croats to supply weapons through its territory. However, during the NATO-led bombing of Serbia, Hungary under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán refused the requests of the United States and Great Britain to invade the north of Serbia in order to hinder the intervention of Serbian forces in Kosovo but expressed concern about the situation of the Hungarian minority in Serbia and had to cede airspace to NATO forces because it got membership in NATO before the war. Several protests against the bombing were also organized in Budapest. Therefore, relations between the two countries slowly improved in the post-war period. During the premiership of Ferenc Gyurcsány, the relations continued to worsen, with Hungary being one of the earliest nations in the world to recognize Kosovo as an independent state.

In 2013, a historical reconciliation was marked after decades of tensions between two countries. The President of Hungary, János Áder gave a speech in front of the Serbian National Assembly where he issued an official apology for the Hungarian role in the World War II persecution of Serbs such as Novi Sad raid. In turn, in 2014 the Serbian National Assembly symbolically voided Yugoslav laws on collective guilt of Hungarian people for crimes committed during World War II.

Political relations

Hungary (along with Greece, Slovakia and Romania) is considered one of the closest allies of Serbia in the European Union, while Serbia is one of Hungary's closest allies in foreign policies.

Although it recognizes Kosovo's independence, in many cases Hungary was on the Serbian side when issue of Kosovo was discussed, e.g. it voted against Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe in 2023.

Neither Hungary nor Serbia have joined the sanctions against Russia following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, with the exception of those Hungary had to adopt as a member of the European Union. Both countries have been vocally against restricting Russian gas imports, and as a consequence have also suffered a deterioration in relations with Ukraine.

Economic relations

Trade between two countries amounted to $3.3 billion in 2023; Hungary's merchandise export to Serbia was over $1.6 billion; Serbian exports were roughly the same standing at $1.6 billion.

Hungarian companies have been active on Serbian market. OTP Bank is the second-largest bank in Serbia. MOL has the retail network of 71 filling stations in Serbia. Hungarian manufacturing companies present in Serbia include Masterplast (building materials plant in Subotica), Tisza Automotive (automotive parts plant in Senta and Kikinda), UBM (animal feedingstuffs plant in Šid).

Recently, there were several infrastructure projects connecting two countries: high-speed Budapest–Belgrade railway (opened in 2025), extension of the TurkStream natural gas pipeline (completed in 2021); currently ongoing projects include crude oil pipeline between Algyő and Novi Sad with capacity of 5 million TOE (due to be completed by 2028) as well as additional high-voltage electricity transmission line (due to be completed by late 2020s).

Hungarians in Serbia

Hungarians in Serbia are a recognized ethnic minority group. They number 184,442, constituting 2.8% of the total population, which makes them the largest ethnic minority group in the country. The vast majority of Hungarians in Serbia live in the northern part of Vojvodina province, where they make up 10.5% of provincial population. Hungarians of Roman Catholic faith originated mostly from Dunántúl, while Hungarians of Protestant faith originated mostly from Alföld.

Parts of today's Vojvodina were included into the medieval Kingdom of Hungary in the 10th century, and Hungarians then began to settle in the region. Until the 16th century, Hungarians formed the largest part of population in today's Vojvodina. After the Ottoman conquest of Hungary, the region was devastated by the conquerors, the population were killed, or fled. Hungarians started to settle back to the territory after the Ottomans were driven out in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Hungarian colonists settled in Bačka throughout the 18th century and by the 19th century, their colonization increased. The first Hungarian settlers in Syrmia moved there during the 1860s, mainly from Bačka.

Serbs in Hungary

Serbs in Hungary are a recognized ethnic minority group, numbering 7,210 people or 0.07% of the total population. The only settlement with an ethnic Serb majority in Hungary is Lórév (Serbian: Ловра) on Csepel Island; this small village of 307 people had 180 Serb inhabitants (and 202 people with a Serb "cultural heritage"). There is small Serb community in the village of Szigetcsép, also on Csepel Island. Several tiny Serb communities are to be found in the southern part of the country, along the border with Serbia: in the town of Batanya as well as in villages of Deszk and Hercegszántó; in none of these more than 5% of population is Serb. The largest concentration of Serbs in Hungary is in Budapest and they mainly consists of relatively recent immigrants (from 1990s onwards).

The presence of Serbs in the territory of present-day Hungary dates from the Middle Ages. Since the 15th century, and particularly during the late 17th-early 18th century, escaping from the Ottoman threat, a large number of Serbs migrated to the Kingdom of Hungary. The most prominent example of Serb architectural heritage in Hungary is the old town of Szentendre (Serbian: ''Sentandreja''), with seven Serbian Orthodox churches, brightly coloured merchant houses and the Museum of Serbian Orthodox Heritage. In Budapest, there is an old Serb Orthodox Church in Serb Street, Pest, and the famous Serbian college, Thökölyanum (Serbian: ''Tekelijanum''). There are Serbian Orthodox churches in Vác, Székesfehérvár (''Stoni Beograd''), Szeged, Baja, Mohács, Siklós, Eger, Győr, Esztergom, Hódmezővásárhely; as well as two Serbian Orthodox monasteries, in Ráckeve (''Srpski Kovin'') and Grábóc (''Grabovac'').

Resident diplomatic missions

* Hungary has an embassy in Belgrade and a consulate general in Subotica.
* Serbia has an embassy in Budapest and an honorary consulate in Szeged.

File:Embassy_of_Serbia_Budapest.jpg, Embassy of Serbia in Budapest

See also

* Foreign relations of Hungary
* Foreign relations of Serbia
* Hungary–Yugoslavia relations

References

Sources

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External links

Hungarian embassy in Belgrade


Hungarian general consulate in Subotica(in Hungarian and Serbian only)



* ttp://budapest.mfa.gov.rs/ Serbian embassy in Budapest (in Hungarian and Serbian only)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hungary-Serbia relations

Serbia
Bilateral relations of Serbia