US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel next week to Hungary, the State Department said, after President Donald Trump endorsed its right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is trailing in polls ahead of April elections.
Mr Rubio will travel to Hungary and Slovakia, also led by a right-wing ally of Mr Trump, after addressing the Munich Security Conference, where last year Vice President JD Vance berated the European Union and championed the continent's far right.
Mr Rubio, often seen as the more civil face of the Trump administration, will represent the United States at Munich this year instead of Mr Vance.
The trip comes as tensions again rise between the United States and the European Union after Mr Trump mused about seizing Greenland from Denmark, a NATO ally.
State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said Mr Rubio "will meet with key Hungarian officials to bolster our shared bilateral and regional interests, including our commitment to peace processes to resolve global conflicts and to the US-Hungary energy partnership".
Mr Orbán is the rare European Union leader to enjoy warm relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has often resisted EU initiatives to support Ukraine.
He had planned a summit last year between Mr Trump and Mr Putin which was scrapped as US officials became convinced that Russia was unlikely to compromise on the war.
Last week, the US president endorsed Mr Orbán in a social media post, calling the European Union's longest-serving national leader "a true friend, fighter, and WINNER".
But Mr Orbán is facing an unprecedented challenge in his quest for a fifth straight term on 12 April, with polls showing him trailing the party of Peter Magyar - a former government insider turned critic.
Mr Orbán became a hero to many of Mr Trump's supporters for his hostility to migration during the Syrian refugee crisis a decade ago.
When Mr Orbán visited the White House last year, Mr Trump granted Hungary a sanctions exemption on Russian oil and gas imports.
Former president Joe Biden had a much more hostile relationship with Mr Orbán, who he accused of "looking for dictatorship" in part by muzzling independent media and campaigning against LGBTQ rights.
In Slovakia, Prime Minister Robert Fico has also found common cause with Mr Trump.
But the Slovakian prime minister’s recent visit to see Mr Trump in Florida caused a stir when Politico, citing unnamed European diplomats, reported that Mr Fico had voiced concern about the US president's mental state.
Both countries denied the account.
During his visit in Slovakia, Mr Rubio "will meet with key members of the Slovak government to advance shared regional security interests, strengthen bilateral cooperation on nuclear energy and energy diversification, and support Slovakia's military modernisation and NATO commitments", a spokesperson for the US State Department said.
