Government Stands Up for Ukraine’s Hungarian Minority in NATO

The government will not agree to any integration decision within NATO regarding Ukraine until the rights of the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia are restored, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in Brussels on Tuesday.

At a press conference following the meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Committee, the minister pointed out that this was the first time in six years that a meeting was held in this format, as the pressure on the Alliance’s secretary general was so intense that he was forced to convene the meeting despite the unchanged Hungarian position.

During our meeting, NATO Secretary General @JensStoltenberg and I discussed steps to ramp up the production of ammunition so that Ukraine has everything it needs for successful counter-offensive operations. I also outlined Ukraine’s vision for becoming a full-fledged NATO member. pic.twitter.com/WFU7pu2RXI

— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) April 4, 2023

We believe that this was a serious violation of NATO’s general approach and rules for unified and unanimous decision-making, but of course, we took note of the decision,”

he said.

Szijjártó stressed that the rights of Hungarians living in Transcarpathia have been systematically curtailed in Ukraine since 2015, the latest example being the impossibility of minority schools to operate from September this year, despite the fact that there are now 1,300 educational institutions in Hungary with Ukrainian refugee students.

As a result, 99 Hungarian primary and secondary schools have to cease operations in this form, and universities have been deprived of the right to choose the language of instruction, which affects two Hungarian-language universities, he explained.

Szijjártó also drew attention to the fact that the fighting has also had Hungarian victims, as many Hungarians from the Hungarian national community in Transcarpathia have been conscripted, some of them by quite brutal means.

Featured photo via Facebook/Szijjártó Péter