The bronze 2-meter likeness of the 40th president was erected in Budapest at Freedom Square, near both the US Embassy and a World War II memorial to Soviet soldiers killed during the ouster of the Nazis from Hungary. Prime Minister Viktor Orban and former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice helped unveil the statue on Wednesday.

Reagan was remembered for the aid and encouragement he gave Hungary and other former Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe to gain back their freedom. Reagan "changed the world and created a new world for Central Europe," Orban said at the unveiling ceremony.

"He tore down the walls which were erected in the path of freedom in the name of distorted and sick ideologies."