The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade strongly rejects “all absurd claims” that Hungary is waging a propaganda war against Romania, even if such claims take the form of slanders from academic circles.

Hungarian news agency MTI approached the Ministry with regard to the fact that the Romanian media had portrayed Hungary’s Trianon 100 research group, which was awarded thirty million forints (EUR 96,000) within the framework of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ “Impetus” programme for young researchers for a five-year project on increasing, summarising and publishing knowledge about the Treaty of Trianon, as a promoter of “anti-Romanian” propaganda.

The fallout of the “exposé” put forward by historian Ioan Aurel Pop at an event held last week at the Babes-Bolyai University of Science in Cluj (Kolozsvár), which marked the debut of the “Laboratory for the Analysis of Information Warfare and Strategic Communications” recently set up by the Romanian Academy, mainly to deal with Russia, continued to gain momentum in the Romanian press on Tuesday. In his lecture, the Rector of the University claimed that Romania “is also involved in an information and communication war with another one of its neighbours, Hungary”, and that Budapest has “set up a state department paid for out of its own budget called Trianon 100”, while the Romania Centenary department set up by the administration in Bucharest has no separate budget.

In reply to questions from MTI, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade issued a statement on Tuesday stating that Hungary continued to hope that bilateral relations with Romania’s new government can gain new impetus, as previously discussed by the countries’ two foreign ministers at a meeting in February.

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Impetus programme is an open scientific project aimed at achieving greater and better knowledge of the past, the statement reads. The Ministry said it was “unfortunate that the interests of certain Romanian academic circles are in conflict with the joint uncovering of the often differently interpreted processes of the past”. “An academic work of this nature can only bring the two peoples closer”, the Ministry stressed.

The Ministry will continue to support the joint investigation of the past and the related scientific discussion in future, and will use the instruments at its disposal to facilitate dialogue between Hungarian and Romanian researchers, the statement stressed.

(MTI)