Hungary is ready to provide a 50 million euro [$60.5 million] loan to Ukraine for road construction in the region of Zakarpattia, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday
KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th January, 2021) Hungary is ready to provide a 50 million euro [$60.5 million] loan to Ukraine for road construction in the region of Zakarpattia, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday.
"We are ready to provide a 50 million Euros loan for the road construction in Zakarpattia," Szijjarto said at a press conference after his meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
The minister noted that Budapest was ready to extend Hungary's M-3 and M-31 motorways to the border with Ukraine and would like to establish a new border checkpoint. Szijjarto added that Budapest had prepared a project for the modernization of the bridge over the Tisa river.
Szijjarto stressed that Ukraine already received roughly 16 billion forints [$53.5 million] from Hungary as part of its contribution to the implementation of 34,000 projects.
The minister has repeatedly stated that Hungary wants to improve ties with Ukraine, which worsened in 2017, when Kiev adopted a law that banned the use of minority languages in schools, restricting the rights of Ukraine's 150-thousand-strong Hungarian community settled in the Zakarpattia region.
Despite the fact that Budapest's rapprochement, Kiev has yet to pay in kind. In early December, Szijjarto warned that Hungary would block Ukraine's membership in NATO unless Kiev stopped intimidating its Hungarian community.
