Hungary is helping Ukraine in the EU integration processes, and is a committed supporter of the granting of visa-free travel and the approval of the free trade agreement planned to be entered into with the European Union, but will not allow the Hungarian national community to be placed at a disadvantage, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó stated after the one-day Brussels meeting of the Foreign Ministers of NATO Member States in an interview given to the Hungarian news agency MTI on Friday.

As he said, as part of a bilateral meeting, he asked Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin to ensure that the amendment of the language legislation, the education law and the and nationality law should not detrimentally affect the Hungarian national community.

If decisions are adopted in Ukraine which violate the interests of the Hungarian national community or place them at a disadvantage compared with the situation they are in now, Hungary will voice its concerns at the forums of the European Union, he pointed out.

The Minister informed MTI that at his bilateral talks held with Icelandic Foreign Minister Gudlaugur Thór Thórdarson, they agreed to set up a task force to promote the maximum possible exploitation of the economic opportunities arising from geothermic energy sources and thermal waters.

The Icelandic leadership welcomes the fact that, as part of NATO’s Smart Defence programme, following the current policing of Slovene airspace and the airspace of the Baltic States thereafter, Hungary will also be ready after 2020 to take part in the policing of Icelandic airspace, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.

(MTI)