On Monday, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, met Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in Brussels. Following the meeting, the foreign minister said on Facebook that Hungary did not see its stance on Ukraine's EU accession bid as a tactical issue.
“For us, this isn’t a tactical issue but a decision of historic proportions regarding the future of the entire European Union,” the foreign minister said, adding that the European Commission had no clue what effect Ukraine’s EU membership would have on the bloc. ‘It’s enough to think back to the intractable problems the Commission’s decision on grain transit and Ukraine scrapping the licensing requirement for lorries,” he said. Minister Szijjártó insisted, moreover, that the Commission had not prepared the ground for ensuring that Ukraine pursued mutually beneficial accession talks. Referring to the restriction of the rights of the Hungarian national minority in Ukraine, he said “this cast a shadow on bilateral relations”, adding that Hungary demanded the restoration of conditions pertaining in 2015. Minister Szijjártó said, however, that whereas a meeting in person with Kuleba had not taken place since the outbreak of the war, they had kept in regular contact with the aim of improving Hungary-Ukraine ties.