A recent article in the British newspaper could further erode the position of members of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia.Continue reading
Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó held a press conference in Brussels after the last EU’s Foreign Affairs Council meeting of the year. The meeting started today with an informal exchange of views with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, reports Magyar Nemzet.
The Hungarian Minister said that his Ukrainian counterpart and Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanishyna had also requested a meeting with him, which he immediately accepted.
He also had a telephone conversation last week with Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, for the first time since the outbreak of the war. He told the head of the presidential administration that “Hungary is interested in improving relations with all its neighbors.”
Asked by the press whether rumors that the Ukrainian leadership had called for a summit between the Hungarian and Ukrainian leaders were true, he said that
a top-level meeting should take place when there is already a prospect of appropriate actions.
As MTI reports, Péter Szijjártó pointed out that the Hungarian government has still not contributed to the payment of another EUR 500 million from the European Peace Facility for arms supplies to Ukraine, as some of Kiev’s actions violate Hungary’s interests, for instance, the list of international sponsors of the war still includes Hungarian entities and individuals, mainly linked to OTP Bank. He also complained that, although the EU has already spent more than EUR 80 billion to support Ukraine, no detailed account has yet been given of how this money has been used, which is a basic requirement.
In response to journalists’ questions, Minister Szijjártó noted that the new Ukrainian minority law would be analyzed together with Hungarian organizations in Transcarpathia (Ukraine), but that it was already clear that it would not restore the rights that had been gradually withdrawn since 2015. Moreover, he said, this creates a situation of uncertainty in which further regression is possible.
Via Magyar Nemzet, MTI, Featured image: Facebook/Szijjártó Péter