Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto will pay a working visit to Kiev at the end of January to discuss issues in relations between the two neighboring countries, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Thursday
KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th January, 2021) Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto will pay a working visit to Kiev at the end of January to discuss issues in relations between the two neighboring countries, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Thursday.
In late December, Kuleba said that Kiev received a signal from Hungary that it is ready to resume a constructive dialog in light of different views on Ukraine's language policy and treatment of the country's Hungarian minority.
"Hungary is an important partner and our close neighbor. Neighbors sometimes have issues, but then they have to resolve them, because they remain neighbors. Therefore, we agreed that at the end of January my colleague Peter Szijjarto will visit Kiev to discuss the situation in bilateral relations and ways to solve problems based on the principle of mutual respect," Kuleba said, as quoted by Ukraine's European Pravda newspaper.
On October 25, local elections were held in Ukraine during which Szijjarto, in a Facebook post, called on the Hungarians living in the neighboring country to back the Ukrajnai Magyar Party, a party defending the rights of ethnic Hungarians. The Ukrainian foreign ministry said it was "deeply disappointed" with Budapest's "direct interference in Ukraine's internal affairs."
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry handed a note of protest to the ambassador of Hungary, Istvan Iydyarto, over political agitation by Hungarian officials. Kiev also banned two high-ranking Hungarian officials from entering the country for campaigning in the Zakarpattia region. Szijjarto called Ukraine's decision to ban the officials "pathetic and pointless."
Ukrainian-Hungarian relations deteriorated over Kiev's 2017 education law, which restricted the freedom of national minority children, including Russian and Hungarian, to study in their native languages. Several countries, including Hungary, Russia and Romania, said that this law violates the national minorities' rights in Ukraine. Hungary has retaliated against the Ukrainian education law by blocking Kiev's attempts to foster a closer relationship with the European Union and NATO.
