Team Trump is trying to take Hungary back from its comfortable relationship with Moscow and Beijing. However it will come at a cost, critics claim.

The Trump administration is anticipated to invite Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to Washington this month by what would be a public relations coup for the Central European leader, who have flouted democratic norms and also overseen a shift to what he brands “illiberal democracy.”

In accordance with 4 current and former U.S. officials familiar with internal talks, Orban is expected to meet with President Donald Trump in mid-May, though the exact dates have never been confirmed. Such a visit will develop on other outreach by the Trump administration in recent months, which includes a visit by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Budapest in February.

“Too often in the recent past, the United States was absent from Central Europe,” Pompeo stated in a speech later. “That’s unacceptable. Our rivals filled those vacuums.”

Pompeo mold the Trump administration as an essential support for the region and urged Hungary and their neighbors to rebuff warmer relationships with Russia and economic deals with China.

If confirmed, the visit would come in line with the Trump administration’s strategy of addressing great-power competition, looking to roll back Chinese and Russian impact in Europe. Critics state the administration is setting aside issues over human rights and rule of law in the process, and Hungary stands out as a stark example.

Orban have consolidated power in Hungary by dismantling judicial checks on power and amending the constitution, cutting media freedoms, and forcing a top xenophobic anxieties of refugees and immigrants from the Middle East, along with using veiled anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish financiers, including George Soros.

While his nation is a member of the European Union and NATO, Orban have triggered a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and courted China for billion-dollar commercial infrastructure investment deals as part of Beijing’s committed Belt and Road Initiative.

The Trump administration have dialed back Washington’s criticism of Orban, experts and former officials state, opting instead to involve his government in a bid to bring him back fully into the Western fold. A Trump-Orban trip would be a boon for the Hungarian leader, stated Molly Montgomery, a former U.S. diplomat who worked on European problems in Vice President Mike Pence’s office before leaving government. “This meeting rewards Orban’s bad behavior and encourages Hungary to continue to play China, Russia, and the United States against each other,” said Montgomery, now with the Albright Stonebridge Group, a Washington-based consulting firm.

“It legitimizes Orban’s ‘illiberal democracy,’ which has methodically taken away checks on the leader’s power, and is more likely to embolden him in his ongoing cope with the EU,” she said. Andras Simonyi, a former senior citizen Hungarian diplomat who in the past worked under Orban, said a conference could be productive, as long as Trump provides “some tough love” for Orban.

“I think it is important that the president talk to Viktor Orban, but it’s equally important to raise some of the very tough issues that are of concern to the United States,” he claimed.

“At the end of the day, America must help Hungary withdraw back into the Western camp. It’s gone very far-way too far-toward the East,” said Simonyi, who was Hungary’s ambassador to Washington from 2002 to 2007. A State Department spokesperson stated U.S. officials speak regularly with Hungarian officials on upholding Western values as well as freedom.

“The United States government does not shy off from raising concerns with our allies, where we have them. As you may might expect, we typically raise our concerns with NATO Allies through diplomatic channels, rather than through the press,” the spokesperson asserted.

The spokesperson referred queries on a Trump-Orban meeting to the White House. The White House and Hungarian foreign ministry failed to respond to requests for opinion for this story. In February, the Washington-based think tank Freedom House downgraded Hungary from free to “partly free” for the very first time since the former communist state transitioned to democracy after the Cold War due to “sustained attacks on the country’s democratic institutions” by Orban and his Fidesz party.

The Obama administration froze top-level engagement with Hungarian counterparts and also barred from entering the United States 6 Hungarians linked to the government it saw as undermining democratic values.

The relationship changed under Trump, directed by his former top State Department envoy on Europe, A.Wess Mitchell. Mitchell and other top administration officials observed the reprimands as counterproductive, especially as Washington grappled with growing Chinese and Russian affect in Central Europe. Hungarian investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi told press media that with U.S. policy in the region focused on defense and energy, there are actually signs that Mitchell’s strategy have began to take origin in Hungary. Budapest has signaled that it would be responsive to reduce its dependence on Russia for natural gas, an important U.S. priority. Last month, Washington and Budapest signed a Defense Cooperation Agreement on the sidelines of events marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of NATO.

“I think that Mitchell’s policy is working right now it seems like, but of course it has a cost. It’s not a comforting message to those who are interested in human rights. But I realize that the U.S. has allies with worse human rights records,” Panyi stated.

Despite the rapprochement, Orban’s government have still snubbed Washington in various high-profile instances. Hungary spurned a inquiry last year to extradite 2 suspected Russian arms dealers to the United States for trial. They gave back the suspects to Russia conversely.

Orban also ignored forces from the Trump administration to keep open Central European University, a school in Budapest founded by Soros. Over protests from the administration, including from Trump’s ambassador in Budapest, David Cornstein, Orban’s government refused to renew the university’s accreditation, forcing it to relocate to Austria.

Mitchell vented his aggravations in a meeting with a senior Hungarian diplomat last December, according to a Hungarian diplomatic cable leaked to the private news outlet. “Support is starting to dissipate for those who believe in U.S.-Hungarian relations, we have to show results,” Mitchell stated, according to the cable.

The Trump administration has embarked on a global marketing campaign to stem the tide of Chinese investment in infrastructure and also technology in Europe and Asia and has pressured European allies to freeze Beijing out of 5G telecommunications networks. However, a potential meeting with Trump at the White House hasn’t deterred Orban’s overtures to China.The Hungarian leader traveled to Beijing last week to attend the Belt and Road Forum, where he met with the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. During the discussion board, Orban stated Hungary was ready to cooperate further with the Belt and Road Initiative and also will refuse “all outside ideological pressure.” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and his Chinese counterpart signed a five-point development plan to more advance Hungarian-Chinese relations.Szijjarto then declared that a HungarianChinese consortium had won a $2 .5 billion contract to up grade the railway line between Budapest and Belgrade.