One of the defining facts of Hungary’s foreign policy is that it had political sovereignty
only for short periods until 1989. At the beginning of the 1960s a pragmatic and constructive
Hungarian foreign policy began to take shape, which, in the period of the détente
within the Soviet Bloc, could follow a relatively independent path. Sub-Saharan Africa
(SSA) was one of its key relations, and it became one of the priority foreign policy
directions of Hungarian diplomacy. The diplomatic steps taken towards SSA, and the
formation of the Hungarian Africa policy during the détente period, we argue, offer
relevant considerations from a pragmatic international relations perspective even
today. Based on archival and printed press sources, the article provides an analysis
of Hungary’s “African turn” between 1960 and 1970.
