Head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba met with Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary Péter Szijjártó in Uzhhorod.
The talks were held both in a narrow circle and in an expanded format.
On behalf of Ukraine, the talks were also attended by Deputy Heads of the Office of the President of Ukraine Oleksiy Kuleba and Rostyslav Shurma, First Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Yevhen Kudriavets, Deputy Minister for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine Serhiy Derkach, Head of the Zakarpattia Regional State Administration Viktor Mykyta, Head of the Subcommittee of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Education, Science and Innovation Yulia Hryshyna, Deputy Head of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience Ihor Lossovskyi, Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Daria Zarivna.
Speaking to the media after the negotiations with the Hungarian delegation, Andriy Yermak said that the meeting was productive and the conversation was extremely frank and straightforward.
"Today, both sides made it absolutely clear that they are interested in holding a meeting at the level of the Prime Minister of Hungary and the President of Ukraine. I believe that today we have made a powerful step towards this meeting. Of course, we are all interested in this meeting being successful and really opening a new page in our relations," he said.
The Head of the Presidential Office expressed hope for strengthening Ukrainian-Hungarian relations. According to Andriy Yermak, Ukraine wants the meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Viktor Orbán to be productive, and preparations have begun today.
"We did not talk about a specific date today. However, both parties expressed interest in holding such a meeting as soon as possible," the Head of the Presidential Office said.
Andriy Yermak noted that the parties discussed the implementation of Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Peace Formula. The Head of the President's Office thanked Hungary for the participation of its representatives in the meetings of national security and political advisors, in particular in Davos.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that during the meeting in Uzhhorod, all important issues on the agenda were discussed. He emphasized the mutual interest of Ukraine and Hungary in developing good neighborly relations.
The Ukrainian side thanked Hungary for the humanitarian assistance provided since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion. This particularly concerns the shelter for Ukrainian citizens, including children, as well as the treatment of military personnel.
The Ukrainian delegation also expressed gratitude to Hungary for the compromise in the decision to open negotiations on Ukraine's membership in the European Union. The parties discussed further cooperation in the issue of Ukraine's integration into the EU.
The meeting also focused on Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration. The participants touched upon the issues of sectoral cooperation between the two countries, in particular in the areas of logistics, transport, energy and finance.
"We have agreed that our respective ministries and agencies will hold substantive sectoral negotiations on each of the projects that were announced and submit roadmaps for consideration by the governments and leaders of our countries, according to which we will move towards their implementation," said Dmytro Kuleba.
Also, according to him, the Ukrainian and Hungarian parties agreed on the need to resolve the issue of protecting the rights of national minorities. At Ukraine's request, Hungary handed over a list of issues related to the protection of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities.
"We received this list and agreed that under the auspices of the two foreign ministries we would set up a special commission, which in ten days' time would submit to the governments of the two countries the issues that need to be resolved and those that have already been resolved, so that we can bring clarity to that," the Ukrainian Foreign Minister said.
"We want to have this discussion at the bilateral level in order to finally settle the issue, which has already been resolved in principle, in the interests of all national minorities living in Ukraine, including the Hungarian minority," he added.
For his part, Péter Szijjártó thanked the Head of the Office of the President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine for their hospitality and the opportunity to discuss various topics in detail. He also praised Head of the Zakarpattia Regional Military Administration Viktor Mykyta, who contributes to the peaceful coexistence of Hungarians and citizens of Ukraine of other nationalities in Zakarpattia.
Péter Szijjártó noted that since the beginning of this war, Hungary has always spoken about supporting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.
"We condemn the war and want peace to come to our neighbors as soon as possible," he said.
The Hungarian Foreign Minister emphasized that during the meeting, issues related to the life of the Hungarian community had been discussed. He said that the Hungarian side had presented relevant proposals.
In addition, Péter Szijjártó emphasized the importance of negotiations on expanding the capacity of checkpoints at the border, as well as the common goal of building a new bridge across the Tisza.
"We have come to Ukraine today to restore trust in our bilateral relations. I think we can agree that we have managed to take steps in this direction. We still have a long way to go, a lot of work to do, and we on the Hungarian side are ready to do this work and are willing to continue working together," he emphasized.
The Hungarian Foreign Minister assured that Hungary is interested in having good neighborly relations with Ukraine.