A bilateral inter-governmental committee will be set up to reach a formal agreement.Continue reading
The Hungarian-Ukrainian summit will only make sense if it can bring a new dimension to bilateral relations, but the parties still have a lot of work to do, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó stressed in Budapest on Tuesday.
The minister reiterated at a press conference following the meeting of the Bahrain Hungary Joint Economic Committee that the Hungarian-Ukrainian summit will make sense if it can bring a new dimension to bilateral relations, but that the parties still have a lot of work to do.
There is a long way to go before a high-level meeting can take place, but we are ready to do this work together,”
he said.
“Yesterday we took important steps. In the coming days and weeks, the intergovernmental working group on education will have to carry out the work that will allow the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia to regain the rights that were already available to them in 2015.
Furthermore, in September, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted an amendment to the Minority Act, which still does not fully restore the rights of national minorities. The text of the amendment removes an important criterion for defining national minorities, namely that their representatives traditionally live on the territory of Ukraine.
“We are working to ensure the success of the infrastructural developments linking the two countries, so that we can implement transport improvements in the border region. If all of these are fully met, it can be a new dimension, a new era (…) And if that is in place, then it makes sense to talk about how and when to hold the summit,” Minister Szijjártó noted.
Szijjártó also pointed out that the previous day he had traveled by helicopter from Uzhhorod (Ungvár, Ukraine) to Dunakeszi (near Budapest)- not because he lives there, but because he was there to receive his colleague from Bahrain on an official working visit.
“So, the landing at Dunakeszi airport was necessary because I had an official program there, I was receiving the minister and his delegation for a working dinner,” he stressed.
At this week’s European Union summit, the foreign minister emphasized that Hungary continues to believe that there is no solution to the war in Ukraine on the battlefield, and that a ceasefire and peace talks are needed, not arms transfers.
“That is why we do not think it is a good proposal to spend billions of euros to allow the war to continue. However, we understand that the majority of EU Member States are in a state of war psychosis,
hence a compromise solution could be to decide unanimously on aid to Ukraine year after year,”
he underlined.
Speaking on the ratification of Sweden’s NATO membership, the politician added that the National Assembly would soon start sitting at the end of February, at which time the issue could be put on the agenda if the majority decided, therefore there was no real point in calling an extraordinary session.
Via MTI; Featured image via Facebook/Szijjártó Péter
