Hungary's foreign minister has said that the nation's foreign policy is "resolutely standing up for Hungarian interests and the interests of Hungarians living across the border."
Péter Szijjártó, minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, made the remarks on the sidelines of the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The minister said that Hungarian foreign policy will never abandon cross-border Hungarians, we will “fight until the bitter end” with regard to issues that are important to them, and will “not allow decisions that negatively affect Hungarians to be made one after the other in neighboring countries,'" he said.
“Hungary is raising these issues continuously in the international arena, and is continuously calling for international pressure to be placed on these countries," he added.
The minister also held bilateral talks with the foreign ministers of Romania and Croatia and discussed the situation that has developed with the closure of the Hungarian school in Marosvásárhely (Targu Mures), which he said was “disappointing”.
“Hungary regards the Hungarian community in Romania as something that links the two countries, not separates them," Minister Szijjártó said.
The minister pointed out how more than a hundred Hungarian schoolchildren have been forced to begin the continuation of their studies in other schools just days before the beginning of the school year.
“The standpoint of the Hungarian government on the situation that has developed with regard to the Catholic school in Targu Mures is determined by the standpoint of the local Hungarian community, and Hungary is only prepared to stop blocking Romania’s OECD membership if the representatives of the local Hungarian community and the Catholic Church indicate that they view the situation as having been solved," the minister said.
Meanwhile, in regards to Croatia, Minister Szijjártó said that Hungary’s position is "clear and a matter of principle”; after the Croatian government initiated international arbitration proceedings against MOL, lost the case, but instead of implementing the ruling has decided to ignore it.
The OECD is an international economic organization whose operations are based on respect for the decisions of international arbitration tribunals, and as long as Croatia continues to ignore such decisions, the Hungarian government cannot support the country’s bid for membership of the OECD, the minister explained.