Co-chairs of Ukraine-Hungary Commission on National Minorities to meet soon

The co-chairs of the Ukraine-Hungary Commission on National Minorities will hold a meeting in the near future.

“Today, we have agreed that the commission on national minorities will meet at the level of co-chairs in the near future," Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said at a joint briefing with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Kuleba said that the co-chairs of the commission should conduct a "very thorough review" of the situation with the protection of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities and prepare "important decisions for our progress and the elimination of misunderstandings."

The minister also informed that further steps to hold a meeting of the working group on education had been agreed with his Hungarian counterpart.

Kuleba reminded that today's meeting of the Joint Ukraine-Hungary Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation as well as the meetings of the Commission on National Minorities and the Group on Education were necessary steps to prepare a possible future visit of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to Ukraine.

As reported, the fourth meeting of the Joint Ukraine-Hungary Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation co-chaired by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba and Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó was held in Kyiv on June 25.

Earlier, Hungary-Ukraine relations deteriorated again after the Verkhovna Rada passed the Law “On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language”. Hungary reacted negatively to the adoption of this law.

The Hungarian side also sharply criticized the adoption in Ukraine of the law “On Education” on September 5, 2017, which provides, in particular, for the wider introduction of the Ukrainian language, including the educational institutions of national minorities.

Despite numerous attempts of the Hungarian and Ukrainian sides to resolve the disputed issues through diplomacy, a full understanding has not been reached. Official Budapest continued to block Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic initiatives.

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