Hungary has refused to join the "C8," a new eight-nation regional cooperation format launched by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on 18 September, which was intended to bring together Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Hungary to strengthen economic ties across the Carpathian region. Budapest's foreign ministry confirmed on Tuesday that Hungary had not signed the summit declaration and was "not a member of the initiative," though it said it would monitor the group's development. The move has cast doubt on a broader warming of relations between the two countries since the departure of former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose pro-Kremlin stance had long strained ties; his successor Peter Magyar, whose conservative pro-European government took office earlier this year, argued it was "unacceptable" to presume Hungary's membership without prior consent.