Building Bridges – How to Develop Ukraine’s Neighborhood Policy in Central and Eastern Europe, Using the Experience of V4 States

On March 26, 2021 the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade held a roundtable discussion entitled „Building Bridges — How to Develop Ukraine’s Neighborhood Policy in Central and Eastern Europe, Using the Experience of V4 States”. This event was the presentation of the research done by Mr. Dmytro Tuzhanskyi, IFAT’s Think Visegrad fellow from Ukraine. Senior Analyst of IFAT, János T. Barabás and external researcher, Sándor Seremet joined the conversation which was moderated by Deputy Director, Tamás Baranyi.

During the exposé made by Mr. Tuzhanskyi explained his view that there is a duality of approach to regional politics in both Hungary and Ukraine, namely, neighboorhood policy and nationhood policy. While the latter may be a conflicting field between the two nations, the former should be developed according to the research. The aim here is to stabilize the position of Ukraine and break off from the self-identifications as Eastern or post-Soviet, and rather concentrate on the Central European geographical location and the bright historical example of the Ukrainian Republic in 1918.

The concept was generally welcome by both the audeince and the speakers. Most of the questions related to the issue whether such a quick turn in geopolitical orientation could be achieved, Mr. Tuzhanskyi replied in the postive underlining the need to use the example of the V4 countries and the uncertainty of any other options.

The above discussed research paper is intended to be made available on the website of IFAT at a later time.

The full recording can accessed at the link below or on our YouTube-channel!