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Foreign minister: Hungary highly values the United States’ efforts in helping to resolve the conflict with Ukraine

Péter Szijjártó, minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, held talks with Wess Mitchell, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of European and Eurasian, in Budapest this week

The foreign minister has revealed that Hungary highly values the United States’ efforts in helping to resolve the conflict with Ukraine.

Péter Szijjártó, minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, held talks with Wess Mitchell, assistant secretary in the State Department's Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, in Budapest this week.

The minister said that he reaffirmed to the US official that Hungary is interested in resolving the conflict instead of keeping the issue on the agenda.

“Hungary’s ambition is to guarantee that around 150,000 Hungarians can live in security in the Transcarpathia region and exercise their rights,” he said.

Minister Szijjártó also said that Hungary wants to see Ukraine fulfill its obligations assumed in international and bilateral treaties.

He noted that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had sent his government’s memorandum assessing recent developments in Ukrainian legislation restricting minority rights to NATO’s secretary-general and the prime ministers of the NATO member states.

PM Orbán has at the same time initiated that Ukraine exempt the minorities of NATO member states in its territory from implementing the new laws that affect their rights, Minister Szijjártó added.

“In terms of Hungary-US relations we have reaffirmed that the two countries are strategic partners and allies,” he said.

Hungary and the United States share strategic interests that include a commitment towards developing ties between central Europe and the US, the minister added.

Minister Szijjártó said they agreed on renewing the bilateral defense cooperation concluded 20 years ago in an effort to respond to new challenges.

He concluded that Hungary and the US work in close cooperation towards reforming the United Nations, adding that both countries agree on the need to modernize the world organization’s institutions as well as to streamline and speed up its procedures.