Instrumentalizing Multilateralism: President Erdoğan Visits Hungary for the Second Time in 2023

Introduction

Hungary and Turkey are currently enjoying exceptionally good relations.1 While differences have surfaced between Budapest and Ankara during the Israel-Hamas war, with Turkey expressing solidarity with Hamas and Hungary aligning with Israel, the shared perspectives of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the transactional nature of international politics downplayed the discord during their most recent meeting on December 18, 2023. In addition to their shared worldview, a crucial factor cementing the connection between the Orbán and Erdoğan regimes—beyond cooperation on energy,2 culture,3 and migration4—is their critical view of their country’s membership in the Western security architecture. Although this link was not explicitly mentioned during the meeting,5 which was more ceremonial than substantial, celebrating the 100th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, it is worth exploring how Turkey’s and Hungary’s ruling regimes use multilateral organizations to extract benefits from cooperation.