NID: HUNGARY: DISCUSSING THE POSSIBILITY OF NEUTRALITY

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe: A 30-Year Legacy
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06826733
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 26, 2019
• Document Release Date: December 10, 2019
• Publication Date: March 7, 1989

Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826733
HUNGARY: Discussing the Possibility of Neutrality
General Secretary Gorbachev's recent qualified endorsement of
Ifungary.'s decision to introduce a multiparty system will stimulate the
discussion o Hun arian neutrality already evident in official circles in
Budapest.
\Hungary wants a relationship
with the USSR similar to that of Finland�friendly but outside the
Warsaw l'act amci economically integrated with Western Europe.
Budapest has permission from senior Soviet officials
to withdraw from the Pact and CEMA.
Gorbachev said publicly last week that Moscow has "respect for and
great confidence in" Budapest's decision to introduce a multiparty
system. adding that he hopes Hungary is ready for it
I Gorbachev's cautious endorsement follows
controversial comments by his adviser Oleg Bogomolov allowing for
the possibility of Hungarian neutca1iixnnients that Bogornolov
later said were not authoritativc.LJ
Comment: Several Hungarian officials recently have publicly
expressed thcir ho s fcr the eventual elimination of both NATO and
the Pact,
Hungary's ultimate ob'ective is the
elimination of both alliance systems
Although the l'act has always called officially for the dismantling
of both alliances. Moscow almost certainly would not condone a
Hungarian move to leave the Pact or CEMA under current
circumstances. Nonetheless. Gorbachev himself has alluded to the
eventual dissolution of the Pact and NATO as part of a protracted
process of European disarmament. He probably would view
Hungarian neutrality only as part of such a process.
Some in Budapest may be testing the limits of Hungary's tics to the
USSR by raising the neutrality issue. Many Hungarians. including
some in the leadership, want Hungary to become a neutral social
democracy and believe that the Soviets would not intervene militarily
to stop this evolution. The statements of Bogomolov and Gorbachev
and the announced partial Soviet troop withdrawal from Eastern
Europe are leading some Hungarians to believe the forrierly
unthinkable is now possible.
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7 March 19S9
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Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826733