Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Ukraine will raise issue of Hungary fulfilling its obligations to NATO
Ukraine intends to raise the issue of Hungary’s fulfilling its obligations at the meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Commission, which will be held at the ambassadorial level on December 14 in Brussels, Belgium, as reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
“We plan to draw the attention of NATO member states to the need for Hungary to comply with its obligations to NATO during the meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Commission at the ambassadorial level on December 14, 2017 in Brussels,” the report said.
Regarding Hungary’s veto of the holding of a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO commission, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry notes that Ukraine declared its readiness to work out proposals regarding education and languages with public associations of national minorities.
It was also noted that the mission of Ukraine to NATO provided experts of the international secretariat and delegations of the member countries with explanations, information, and analytical materials on compliance the education law with Ukraine’s international obligations.
In addition, the Ukrainian Minister of Education and Science, Liliya Hrynevych, informed the representatives of the member countries of the Alliance about the content and particulars of the new version of the law.
“In particular, about Article 7 in the context of the attempts of individual states, especially Hungary, to accuse Ukraine of the intention to limit opportunities for Ukrainian citizens, in particular national minorities, to access education in the languages of these minorities,” the ministry’s report said.
Also, in connection with Hungary’s attempts to block the meeting, the above-mentioned issue was discussed between Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Ivan Klympush-Tsintsadze and NATO Deputy Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy Alejandro Alvargonzalez.
In late October, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said that his country cannot support Ukraine’s aspirations to integrate into NATO, so it vetoed the convening of the Ukraine-NATO Commission in December.
In turn, the Foreign Ministry said that Ukraine did not send an official request to convene a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Commission involving foreign ministers in December, nor did it propose convening a meeting of the international secretariat of the Alliance.