According to the Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street, Sir Keir Starmer spoke to Hungary’s new prime minister, Péter Magyar, from Paris on 17 April. The UK readout said Starmer congratulated Magyar on his election victory, described it as a new chapter for Hungary, and presented it as an opening to deepen UK-Hungary relations across a wider set of issues. (gov.uk) The same note said the two leaders discussed joint work against Russian aggression and Ukraine’s continued self-defence. In Whitehall terms, the readout does two jobs at once: it marks first contact with new leadership in Budapest and folds that contact straight into the UK’s Ukraine policy. (gov.uk)
That matters because the UK already treats Hungary as a relationship that extends beyond ceremonial diplomacy. The British Embassy Budapest says its remit covers policy, defence and security, trade and investment. The Department for Business and Trade’s latest Hungary trade and investment factsheet puts total bilateral trade at £8.9 billion in the four quarters to the end of Q3 2025, with UK exports at £3.7 billion and imports at £5.2 billion; the same factsheet says Hungary was the UK’s 35th largest trading partner over that period and that UK outward FDI stock in Hungary stood at £1.6 billion at the end of 2024. (gov.uk) Set against that base, Downing Street’s reference to deeper ties across all areas should be read as more than courteous language. It points to a wider effort to use the existing relationship as the basis for closer political co-operation, rather than a single-issue conversation limited to foreign policy. (gov.uk)
Ukraine remains the clearest policy test. The UK government’s Ukraine support factsheet says Britain, alongside France, is jointly leading Coalition of the Willing work on Ukraine’s future security. The same factsheet says the UK has committed £10.8 billion in military support since Russia’s full-scale invasion, will sustain £3 billion a year in military aid until 2030 to 2031, and has made over £5.3 billion in non-military commitments. (gov.uk) Against that backdrop, the Downing Street line thanking Magyar for support that helps Ukraine keep defending itself is notable. It suggests London wants early confirmation that new leadership in Budapest can be treated as a constructive participant in the wider European effort, even though the readout stops short of announcing any specific joint measure. (gov.uk)
The location also matters. The call was made from Paris, and UK government material published earlier this year says Britain and France are jointly leading Coalition of the Willing work on Ukraine’s future security. A 24 February release said the Prime Minister was convening coalition leaders with President Macron, while the March UK-Ukraine Strategic Dialogue tied that work to security guarantees set out in the 6 January Paris Declaration and to planning for a future Multinational Force Ukraine. (gov.uk) That does not prove the Hungary call produced a policy shift on its own. It does, however, place the conversation inside a more deliberate UK effort to keep European backing for Ukraine organised through regular leader-level contact, not only through public statements. (gov.uk)
What the government has not announced is just as important. The 17 April readout contains no new sanctions package, no defence procurement commitment, no formal bilateral roadmap and no date for a follow-up visit. The text ends only by saying the leaders looked forward to speaking again soon. (gov.uk) For policy readers, that means the item should be treated as a signalling exercise rather than a settled agreement. Downing Street has made public that it sees value in testing whether a new Hungarian prime minister can support closer co-operation with London on security and on the war in Ukraine; the next evidence will need to come from ministerial contact, joint statements or operational decisions. (gov.uk)
For officials and businesses, the near-term question is whether this political opening produces follow-through in the areas the UK already identifies as central to the relationship: policy, defence and security, trade and investment. The existing economic relationship is large enough to make deeper engagement meaningful if it is carried into departmental work rather than left at leader level. (gov.uk) On the evidence published so far, the call is best understood as an opening move. The UK’s message is that a change at the top in Budapest could support closer bilateral ties and firmer alignment on Ukraine; whether that becomes policy in practice remains to be seen. (gov.uk)