Hungary–Slovakia relations

Hungary and Slovakia are two neighboring countries in Central Europe. There are two major periods of official foreign relations between them in contemporary history. The first period included relations between the Kingdom of Hungary and the first Slovak Republic in 1939–1945. The second period started in 1993, when the countries again established diplomatic relations, the year when Slovakia became independent of Czechoslovakia. Hungary has an embassy in Bratislava and a general consulate in Košice, and in Nitra, and Slovakia has an embassy in Budapest and a general consulate in Békéscsaba.

After the first break-up of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Hungary was the first state which officially recognized the independent Slovakia. Subsequently, Hungary and Slovakia established embassies in Bratislava and Budapest and kept diplomatic relations during World War Two. Despite a formal alliance inside the Berlin pact (1940) and a common war against the Allies, Slovak-Hungarian political relations maintained on the brink of war due to the frontier dispute and the oppression of Slovak minority in Hungary and Hungarians in Slovakia. The restoration of Czechoslovakia and the liquidation of the Slovak puppet state in 1945 led to the end of the first period of Hungary-Slovakia's relations.

Nowadays, both countries are full members of the Council of Europe, the European Union, NATO and of the Visegrád Group. They share 676 kilometres (420 mi) of common borders. There are approximately 520,000 persons of Hungarian descent living in Slovakia (about 9.7% of its population) and around 39,266 persons of Slovak descent living in Hungary (about 0.38% of its population). There have been frequent minor diplomatic conflicts between the two countries.