“The visit to Hungary be the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister in March will hopefully bring us closer to a solution with relation to Ukrainian minority rights, in view of the fact that the current situation is unacceptable and is in gross violation of the law”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared on Thursday at the plenary session of the United Nations General Assembly.

In his speech, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade underlined: “Hungary has in interest in Ukraine being a strong, developing and democratic country, and it has 150 thousand arguments in favour of doing so in view of the fact that this is the number of Hungarians living in Transcarpathia”. As he pointed out, for this reason Hungary has afforded Ukraine some 75 billion forints (EUR 222 million) in economic development, humanitarian, healthcare and educational aid during the past five-six years, has participated in the medical treatment of soldiers wounded in the fighting, and has provided free holidays to some 2300 Ukrainian children.

“The Hungarian government has always stood up for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of its eastern neighbour, and is aware of the extreme seriousness of the challenges the country is facing. However, it is unacceptable that Kiev is violating its bilateral and international legal commitments on several points with the education and language use acts is has adopted in recent years, which are stripping the Hungarian community of a significant proportion of its previously acquired rights”, Mr. Szijjártó highlighted.

“We will continue to make a stand in support of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty in future in the strongest possible terms, but we expect the Ukrainian leadership to also respect international regulations and restore the rights that have been taken away from the Hungarian community”, he added.

In closing, the Minister said everyone must universally demand that the UN respect international law. “It is unacceptable that they are taking action against certain violations of the law, but are turning a blind eye to others”, he declared.

(MTI)