The Hungarian authorities are sparing no effort to investigate the recent incidents targeted against Slovakia’s diplomatic representation and cultural institute in Budapest, the Foreign Ministry told MTI on Friday.
The ministry responded to remarks by Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak in an interview to the Slovak news agency SITA last Thursday.
Lajcak said Slovakia expected Hungary to investigate the attacks that followed Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom’s thwarted visit to Slovakia last August. The president wanted to attend the inauguration of a statue of Saint Stephen, Hungary’s state-founding king, in Komarno.
The episode that soured bilateral relations was followed by protests at, and a petrol bomb attack on, the Slovak embassy, as well as repeated vandalisation of the Slovak cultural institute.
Deputy foreign affairs spokesman Denes Balogh noted that the Hungarian Foreign Ministry had expressed regret immediately after the incidents and asked the authorities to investigate the attacks and take measures to prevent similar incidents.
The Hungarian position has remained unchanged: such incidents are inadmissible and the perpetrators have to be brought to court, he said.
