Further Steps Taken toward Building Mutual Trust with Ukraine

On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó attended a meeting of foreign ministers of NATO member states in Brussels and held bilateral talks with his Ukrainian and Canadian counterparts in the afternoon. “In recent weeks, we have taken further steps to restore mutual trust in relations between Hungary and Ukraine,” he wrote afterwards on his Facebook page.

In the post after his meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, he wrote that there has been some progress in Hungarian-Ukrainian relations, “such as the amendment of the border traffic agreement that will contribute to the elimination of undignified situations on the border between the two countries.”

“We are looking forward to tomorrow’s meeting of the Hungarian-Ukrainian working group on education with hope, as

the most important task now is to restore the rights of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia to education and the use of their mother tongue,”

he noted.

The Minister stressed that the infrastructure development on the Ukrainian-Hungarian border, which is being implemented with government support, will enable the transfer of one million containers and three million tons of wheat and edible oil per year at Fényeslitke, which could greatly help Ukraine to maintain its trade with Europe.

In another Facebook post on Wednesday, Péter Szijjártó also reported on his meeting with the Canadian Foreign Minister.

“Melanie Joly is now the seventh Canadian Foreign Minister with whom I have served, and

we have set ourselves the goal of giving renewed impetus to cooperation between Hungary and Canada,

which is well served by the fact that this year Hungary will hold the rotating presidency of the EU (Council) and next year Canada will hold the rotating presidency of the G7,” he wrote.

He added that “our defense cooperation is an important pillar of Hungary’s security, as Hungarian fighter pilots have received Canadian training in recent years, and the procurement of the Hungarian air defense radar system is partly funded by Canada.”

He stressed that both countries belong to the “nuclear camp,” both countries have a share of nuclear energy above 10 percent, and they agreed to exploit the potential of research and development cooperation.

Via MTI, Featured image: Facebook/Szijjártó Péter