The foreign minister has announced that Hungary will only approve Ukraine’s NATO accession after the rights of ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia are restored to the level they were before the introduction of Ukraine’s language law.
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said Hungary is interested in Ukraine being a stable, democratic and secure country. He added that the stronger and more stable Ukraine is, the better the situation is for ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia.
The minister said the rights of ethnic Hungarians were “seriously violated” under the previous president and pressure on them continued to grow in the recent period “in a concealed way, with the assistance of Ukraine’s secret police,” he said.
Minister Szijjártó said Hungary has made it clear that it would only lift a veto blocking Ukraine’s NATO accession if the rights of ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia are restored to what they were before the introduction of Ukraine’s laws affecting minorities in the country. “We are not asking for anything extra, we are not asking for more rights for ethnic Hungarians, only those that that they used to have before,” he said.
Photo credit: Infostart