Meeting of Hungarian and Ukrainian foreign ministers held, with the Hungarian side asking for 11-point changes
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Encouraging steps have been made to restore an atmosphere of trust between Hungary and Ukraine, though the road ahead “is long and much work will need to be done”, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said on Monday, adding that Hungary was ready for this.
Bilateral ties deteriorated “because the rights of Transcarpathian Hungarians have been curbed again and again since 2015”, Szijjártó told a joint press conference after talks in Uzhorod (Ungvár) with Ukrainian counterpart Dmitro Kuleba and Andrij Yermak, the head of the presidential office. He added that ties had been dominated by unresolved issues rather than good relations, according to a ministry statement.
He said the law adopted by the Ukrainian parliament last December “undoubtedly stopped this negative spiral” but the government expected the rights afforded to the Transcarpathian Hungarian community to be restored to what they were in 2015.
“I want to emphasise … that Hungary wants no special treatment; we want nothing we didn’t have before…” he said.
Hungary, he added, has prepared an 11-point list of requests, including restoring the status of schools for ethnic minorities, the opportunity to sit school-leaving exams in Hungarian, as well as the unrestrained use of Hungarian in higher education, culture, public services and community life.
The ministers have also appointed a bilateral inter-governmental committee to finalise the proposals, he added.
“We came here to rebuild trust in bilateral ties. I think we agree that we have taken steps in that direction. We still have a long way ahead of us, and a lot of work to do, but we Hungarians are ready to undertake it,” he said.
Hungary’s position regarding Ukraine was clear and consistent in the past two years, Szijjártó said.
“We stand for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. We condemn the war and want peace in our neighbourhood,” he said.
The minister called for renewed efforts to restore peace in Ukraine. “Hungary is ready to continue making such efforts, because we know that lives can only be saved when there is peace,” he said.
He said that since 2022 Hungary had been carrying out the biggest humanitarian operation in its history, and some one million refugees had entered Hungary. Fully 5,442 Ukrainian children are attending 1,558 schools and kindergartens in the country, he added.