Contrary to earlier reports, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha will not be traveling to Hungary.
(Photo: Ritzau Scanpix via AFP)
According to the latest information, the Ukrainian government ultimately delegated Taras Kachka to take part in the talks in Budapest, which are expected to take place on Thursday,
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mate Paczolay told Magyar Nemzet.
As reported, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto mentioned Sybiha’s planned visit at a joint press conference with his Israeli counterpart on Monday.
He stressed that responsibility for the deterioration of Hungarian–Ukrainian relations lies clearly with Ukraine: it was not Hungary that stripped rights from Ukrainians living here, but Ukraine that continues to strip minority rights from ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia.
How could relations be improved? For instance, by Ukrainians restoring all the minority rights they have taken away from Hungarians. That depends solely on them. If they could reverse an anti-corruption law in a single minute under European pressure, they could just as easily restore minority rights in the same amount of time,
the Hungarian Foreign Minister emphasized.
Sybiha has repeatedly criticized his Hungarian counterpart in harsh terms. Recently, he even invoked the deaths of Ukrainian children to attack Szijjarto.
How shameless to post this after a brutal attack by terrorist state Russian. Peter, if the Russian pipeline is more important to you than the Ukrainian children killed by Russia this morning, this is moral decay,
Sybiha wrote on social media.
Despite this, the Hungarian Foreign Minister said he remained open to dialogue.
I am ready to discuss these issues with him again and again. Over the past eleven years, I cannot even count how many dozens of times I have met with four different Ukrainian foreign ministers. I always said what we wanted, and the opposite always happened. But what can I say—this is diplomacy and foreign policy. Let’s try again,
Peter Szijjarto stated.
Taras Kachka’s visit to Hungary, in his capacity as Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, can also be construed as a signal from Kyiv: instead of focusing on the rights of the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia, Ukraine wants to place the issue of EU accession at the center of the talks.
Cover photo: Andriy Sybiha, Ukrainian Foreign Minister (Photo: NurPhoto via AFP)
