Visegrád leaders agree to strengthen cooperation at summit in Hungary

The prime ministers of the Visegrád Group (V4) met on Tuesday in the Hungarian town of Gödöllő, about 30 kilometres east of Budapest, and announced plans to strengthen regional cooperation.

“V4 is back,” Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar said following the summit, his first as host of a Visegrád Group meeting.

Cooperation among the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia has been strained in recent years, largely due to differing positions on Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022.

The four leaders — Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Hungary’s Péter Magyar — agreed to meet in the V4 format before every major European Union summit in order to coordinate and advance their shared interests.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš welcomed the revival of the grouping and the renewed consensus among its members.