As long as the legislation necessary to restore the rights of the Hungarian national community is not enacted in Ukraine, the conditions for a higher-level meeting simply cannot be met.
The response document sent by the Ukrainian government does not contain any progress regarding the full restoration of the pre-2015 rights of the Transcarpathian Hungarian minority, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced on Tuesday in Budapest.
According to the announcement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the head of the department, in response to a journalist's question, at a joint press conference with the Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), reminded that
in his meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart in January, he made clear the Hungarian expectations in this matter, i.e. that the former rights of the Transcarpathian minority, which had been gradually reduced in the meantime, must be restored.
In this regard, he informed that a document was handed over, which summarizes in eleven points what kind of decisions would be necessary for this on the Ukrainian side. "We are not asking for anything extra, only the rights that the Transcarpathian Hungarians already had," he said.
"Unfortunately, it must be stated that the response document sent to us by the Ukrainian colleagues does not contain any kind of progress in this area," he pointed out.
Péter Szijjártó also mentioned that the official answer will be sent to Kyiv on Wednesday.
"I really hope that they will move away from this dogmatic position in the future, and I sincerely hope that they will be able to show some kind of progress regarding minority rights," he emphasized.
"As long as the legislation necessary to restore the rights of the Hungarian national community is not enacted in Ukraine, the conditions for a higher-level meeting simply cannot be met"
he added.
The minister was also asked about French President Emmanuel Macron's recent statement in which he did not rule out sending Western soldiers to Ukraine. In response to this, he stated that according to NATO's unanimous decision made two years ago, everything must be done to avoid a direct confrontation in Russia.
"All the statements we heard from the French president go against this joint NATO decision"
he emphasized.
"I would like to draw your attention to the fact that in the last two years there was never a single NATO meeting to change this decision, or even revise it, or supplement it, or modify it," he added.
He then stated that Hungary continues to adhere to NATO's current decision.
"It is certain that every single day that the war lasts increases the risk of escalation, the risk of spreading, and the risk of getting closer to something that can be called a third world war as the case may be."
- He told.
MTI
Cover photo: Péter Szijjártó Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade / Photo: Facebook / Péter Szijjártó
