BRUSSELS, November 29. /TASS/. Hungary will not allow to convene the NATO-Ukraine Commission until the Kiev authorities reinstate the rights of ethnic Hungarians in the Zakarpattia Region, the country’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said at a NATO Foreign Ministers meeting in Bucharest.
"We made it clear many years ago that until Ukraine returns ethnic Hungarians in the Zakarpattia Region their rights, we will not contribute to the convention of such a commission," Szijjarto said in a message on his Facebook page (a social media site banned in Russia since it is owned by Meta corporation deemed extremist by Russian authorities). He pointed out that ever since the Ukrainian conflict kicked off, Hungary had not risen this question and did not intend to do so. "Let’s hope that peace will come as soon as possible, and then we will be able to come back to this question," the minister said.
Hungary has been blocking the work of the NATO-Ukraine Commission at the ministerial level since 2017. It protested against law ‘On education’ adopted by the Kiev authorities, which violated the rights of ethnic minorities, in particular, of the Hungarian diaspora in the Zakarpattia Region. Since then, the meetings of the NATO-Ukraine Commission have been taking place only at the level of permanent representatives.