Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko arrived in Budapest for a two-day visit on Tuesday morning.
Yushchenko held a meeting with Hungarian counterpart Laszlo Solyom to discuss topics including the education of ethnic Hungarians in Subcarpathia and bilateral economic relations, with special regard to energy issues. The presidents also discussed Ukraine’s efforts to join the European Union and NATO.
Solyom told reporters after the meeting that he had told Yushchenko that the education system introduced in Ukraine two years ago made the situation of Hungarian schools impossible in Subcarpathia. This poses a risk on the survival of ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine, he added.
The new system of university entrance exams introduced in Ukraine includes the possibility to take a test at the end of secondary school which is also accepted as a university entrance exam. However, this exam can only be taken in Ukrainian.
Solyom said he had also asked Yushchenko’s help to find the perpetrators who damaged Hungarian statues in Subcarpathia. Yushchenko promised to make every effort to find them, Solyom added.
After the meeting, a foreign affairs agreement was signed by deputy minister Vilmos Szabo and Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs (Acting) Volodymyr Khandohiy.
Farm Minister Jozsef Graf and Ukrainian counterpart Yuriy Melnyk signed a cooperation agreement in agriculture and food industry.
Later in the afternoon, Yushchenko placed a wreath at the Hungarian Martyrs Memorial in Heroes Square in Budapest.
Yushchenko is scheduled to meet parliamentary speaker Katalin Szili and Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai on Wednesday. A meeting with representatives of the ethnic Ukrainian community in Hungary is planned too.
Head of the national Ukrainian council in Hungary Yaroslava Hartyani told MTI on Friday that she would brief Yushchenko on the situation of the Ukrainian ethnic minority in Hungary, including problems concerning education.
Yushchenko is returning Solyom’s visit in Kiev last July. Yushchenko’s meeting with Solyom was originally scheduled to take place in Nyiregyhaza in northeast Hungary this January but was postponed due to a situation that involved the disruption of gas supplies from Russia to Ukraine.
As it happens, Ukraine on Monday started restricting gas exports to Hungary, passing on gas only bought from Russia’s Gazprom, according to press reports.
Ukraine is Hungary’s second most important trade partner among the former Soviet states, excluding the Baltic states. Hungary supports Ukraine’s aspirations to join the EU and NATO and has repeatedly offered its experiences about the process.
