The foreign minister said recent developments in Hungarian-Ukrainian ties are cause for “cautious optimism”.
After meeting his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba in Bratislava, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said “actions in Ukraine against the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia in the recent past” were one of the reasons for the two countries’ strained relations. “Steps taken forward in the past few days, however, give cause for cautious optimism,” Minister Szijjártó said.
The minister welcomed that at a meeting of the Hungarian-Ukrainian working group on education on Wednesday, “a solution was outlined that would ease for Transcarpathian Hungarians the use of their mother tongue, even with the current legislation in place.” An agreement was also drafted on the mutual accreditation of degrees and certificates, he noted.
Minister Szijjártó and Kuleba agreed to convene the Hungarian-Ukrainian mixed committee on minority affairs, in the hope of “resolving difficult issues besides education.” He said Kuleba welcomed Hungary’s proposal for Hungary and Ukraine to mutually accept each other’s immunity certificates issued to citizens vaccinated against the coronavirus, to enable unimpeded travel in both countries.