“All five road crossing points along the Ukrainian-Hungarian border will be opened on Monday morning at the latest”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced on Thursday in Kiev at a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.

The two Ministers spoke to reporters following the first session of the Hungarian-Ukrainian Joint Economic Committee on Hungarian-Ukrainian economic cooperation held after an interval of seven years. Following the meeting, the two ministers signed the minutes of the proceedings.

In reply to a question from Hungarian news agency MTI, Mr. Szijjártó said the border crossing points will be opened while maintaining existing travel regulations. He highlighted that this is also important in view of the fact that people are experiencing long delays at the only currently open border crossing point between Záhony and Chop (Csap), and President of the Transcarpathian Hungarian Cultural Association Lászlő Brenzovics had made a specific request and initiative towards Budapest concerning the opening of more border crossing points, with relation to which an agreement has now been successfully arrived at with the Ukrainian party. “The heads of the two countries’ border police authorities are currently negotiating the technical details”, the Minister added.

Dmytro Kuleba said one of the goals of the ministerial meeting was also to prepare for the upcoming summit between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In reply to a question, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister explained: “Kiev has an interest in the summit taking place in July, and for the meeting between the leaders of the two countries to have tangible content”. He added that the minutes signed by the two ministers will form the basis of the memorandum of understanding that the two leaders are expected to sign at the summit.

Mr. Szijjártó said it is important for the two countries to keep their disputes concerning the education and language use rights of the Transcarpathian Hungarian community on a civilized track, and not make bilateral cooperation within other fields impossible. “Within the framework of continuous dialogue, we have agreed that the Education and Minority Joint Committee will be convening over the upcoming weeks, and we hope to come closer to finding a solution to the issues that are causing a dispute between the two countries”, the Minister declared.

Mr. Szijjártó announced that a 62-million-dollar credit line has been opened at Hungary’s EximBank to facilitate trade relations between Hungarian and Ukrainian enterprises. “In addition, we are also maintaining our offer of a 50-million-dollar credit line towards Transcarpathian road construction projects in Ukraine”, he added.

The Minister called on the Ukrainian party to eliminate the bureaucratic barriers preventing the opening of the border crossing point between Nagyhódos and Velika Palagy (Nagypalád). He reminded the press that Hungary’s M3 motorway will be reaching the Ukrainian border by 2023, and that the Ukrainian party has promised to also complete the highway on its side of the border by that time. “Furthermore, the Hungarian party has completed all of the tasks required to enable the commencement of freight traffic via the Beregsurány border crossing point, in addition to which the plans for the renovation of the bridge across the River Tisza between Záhony and Chop are also complete”, he added.

Mr. Szijjártó emphasised that Hungary is ready to perform joint flood protection tasks along the River Tisza. He also took the opportunity to express his condolences with relation to the devastating floods that have occurred in Ukraine over the past few days, and to offer Hungary’s assistance.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)