The foreign minister said Ukraine’s appealing to the European Commission concerning a recent Hungarian-Russian gas deal is a “serious attack on Hungary’s sovereignty”.
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said in Prague that Hungary’s gas supplies must be secured by its government and “it is nobody else’s business how we do that”, the foreign ministry quoted Minister Szijjártó as saying after a Hungarian-Czech government meeting. The minister insisted that “it is an issue of sovereignty”, adding that Hungary was not the only country to sign such a contract with Russia.
Building good neighborly relations is in the interest of the Hungarian government, that is why “it provided Ukrainian soldiers with medical treatment in Hungary, and offered thousands of Ukrainian children, whose parents were impacted by the fights, vacations in the country”, the minister said. Minister Szijjártó insisted that Russian gas was being purchased “at a good price and in a reliable way”.
Concerning Ukraine’s Hungarian community, Minister Szijjártó said allegations that Ukraine’s contested language law, restricting the right of ethnic minorities to use their mother tongue, had been passed because Russia had attacked the country were “clearly nonsensical”. Ethnic Hungarians have nothing to do with Ukraine’s conflict with Russia, and Ukraine “had better leave them out of it”, he said.
“Despite the pledges, nice words and talks that appear constructive, Hungarian minority rights are suppressed step by step,” Minister Szijjártó said.