The foreign ministers of Hungary and Ukraine had their first bilateral meeting in two years. Although steps were taken to converge positions, no one wanted to comment on the lifting of Hungary's veto on European funding for Kiev
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The heads of Ukrainian and Hungarian diplomacy met on Monday in Ukraine at a resort near the city of Uzhhorod. And despite the conciliatory tone of the meeting, there were no guarantees from Hungary that its Prime Minister Viktor Órban would lift the veto on the roughly 54 million euro aid package for Kiev that European leaders sought to approve at a summit in December and which they will discuss again next Thursday in Brussels.
Orbán, considered the closest European politician to the Kremlin, has refused to fund aid to Ukraine from the budgets of the European Union's 27 member states and appears unwilling to change his position.
Nevertheless, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto visited Ukraine for the first time since the start of the Russian invasion and had the first bilateral meeting with his counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in two years.
At a press conference, Szijjarto welcomed that Ukraine has changed legislation in the fields of education and languages in recent years to stop a “negative spiral” of restricting the rights of immigrant Hungarian ethnic minorities in the Zakarpattia region to speak their native language be able to learn. However, he pointed out that the changes were not enough and that Budapest expects members of Hungarian communities to be able to regain “rights that already existed in 2015,” the head of Hungarian diplomacy added.
Hungary has accused Kiev of mistreating the Hungarian minority living in western Ukraine to justify its lack of support for the country since Moscow's invasion. Relations between the two nations have deteriorated, particularly since Orbán hampered the EU's efforts to provide financial and military support to Ukraine by refusing to supply weapons to Kiev or to allow weapons to Ukraine to pass through Hungary's borders let.
On the Ukrainian side, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he considered the issue of the Hungarian minority to be “fundamentally resolved,” but assured that a commission would be set up to examine how Kiev could respond to Budapest's remaining demands and that the conclusions would be submitted to the respective governments be submitted within 10 days.
Meeting planned between Zelensky and Orbán
Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, who also attended the meeting of diplomatic chiefs, also announced that progress had been made in organizing a bilateral meeting between Orbán and Volodymyr Zelensky, but did not specify the date and location of the meeting. Meet.
None of those present wanted to comment on the possibility that Hungary could lift its veto on the European aid package for Kiev worth more than 50 million euros. Ukrainian leaders have asked Western partners for more urgent support, acknowledging that there are shortages of ammunition and other military equipment.
The package estimated at around $60 billion that the White House had allocated to Ukraine also failed to reach Kiev due to an impasse in the US Congress, which is demanding changes to immigration laws in exchange for more aid to Ukraine.
With regard to Hungary, Orbán's critics believe that he vetoed Kiev's support in order to force the EU to release funds it had lost due to the Budapest government's actions, which violated judicial independence, press freedom and the Has questioned the rights of citizens, not handed over LGBTRQ+ communities. However, Hungary accuses Brussels of blackmailing the country and making the delivery of frozen support funds to Ukraine dependent on it.
Faced with a possible new Hungarian blockade, European leaders could resort to Article 7 of the EU Treaty, which refers to violations of the rule of law, and thereby disenfranchise Hungary.