Foreign minister: Central Europe, US ‘natural allies’

The United States once again considers the central European region as its “natural, strategic ally”, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told public television M1 on Friday.

Referring to recent talks with Mike Pompeo, his US counterpart, Szijjártó said that during the Obama administration central Europe had been “off the positive agenda” of US diplomacy, but “now it has changed”.

Illegal migration, fighting terrorism, security policy, United Nations reforms and “balanced” policies towards Israel are “all areas where (the two countries’) interests are clearly identical”, Szijjártó said.

The minister said that the US has “greatly contributed to easing conflicts with Ukraine arising from (that country’s) violating minority rights”.

Prior to meeting Pompeo, Szijjártó had met his Ukrainian counterpart in New York and agreed to set up an inter-governmental team to monitor Ukraine’s implementing the Venice Commission’s recommendations concerning the Ukrainian education law.

“There is hope for a solution,” he said, and added that the Ukrainian education minister had launched consultations with the ethnic Hungarian community while a meeting would soon be held between the education minister of the two countries and ethnic leaders.

Featured image: MTI

Source: MTI