Hungarian foreign minister to visit Ukraine
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba will meet today.
The countries have a tense relationship, heightened by a series of searches conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) against the Hungarian community in the province of Transcarpathia over suspected support for separatism. Prior to this, tensions ran high due to Hungary’s interference in Ukraine’s October elections and Budapest’s veto of the latter’s NATO membership over issues around the language clause of the law on education in Ukraine. This meeting follows one in Kyiv in mid-2020 for a session of the Ukrainian-Hungarian intergovernmental economic commission.
That meeting in Kyiv did not help overcome differences in opinions on state sovereignty and the rights of minorities in Ukraine. Expect today’s visit to set a new start in their relations since both parties have expressed a desire to cooperate and conclude a mutually beneficial agreement. Dialogue will likely continue to find compromises in the dispute over the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia and their rights. The visit may lead to solutions that meet both countries’ interests, with Ukraine amending its language and education laws in an acceptable way for Transcarpathia Hungarians and Hungary lifting the veto to Ukraine’s accession to NATO.
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