“Hungarian foreign policy is resolutely standing up for Hungarian interests and the interests of Hungarians living across the border”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI on Wednesday.
The Minister is attending the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, and while reporting on his bilateral talks with the foreign ministers of Romania and Croatia held on the sidelines of the meeting, explained: Hungarian foreign policy will never abandon cross-border Hungarians, will “fight until the bitter end” with regard to issues that are important to them, and will “not allow decisions that negatively affect Hungarians to be made one after the other in neighbouring countries”. “Hungary is raising these issues continuously in the international arena, and is continuously calling for international pressure to be placed on these countries”, he declared.
The situation that has developed with relation to the Hungarian school in Marosvásárhely (Targu Mures) is also “disappointing” in view of the fact that “promising positive processes have recently begun between the two countries”, and the mutual economic dependency of the two countries is also obvious, he said.
“Hungary regards the Hungarian community in Romania as something that links the two countries, not separates them”, Mr. Szijjártó highlighted.
The Minister said that in his view the further operation of the Catholic school in Targu Mures is solely dependent on the good nature and political will of the Romanian authorities and the Romanian government, adding that in view of this any explanation on the part of the Romanian government that blames the situation on some kind of external factor is unacceptable. “Accordingly, Hungary continues to expect the Romanian government to take the necessary steps to ensure that the school can continue to operate”, he added.
More than a hundred Hungarian schoolchildren have been forced to begin the continuation of their studies in other schools just days before the beginning of the school year, he reminded the press.
“Within the framework of the international application of pressure, Hungary has made it clear that it is not supporting Romania’s membership of the OECD”, he stated.
“The standpoint of the Hungarian Government on the situation that has developed with regard to the Catholic school in Targu Mures is determined by the standpoint of the local Hungarian community, and Hungary is only prepared to stop blocking Romania’s OECD membership if the representatives of the local Hungarian community and the Catholic Church indicate that they view the situation as having been solved”, the Minister said, adding: Hungary expects Romania to “prevent all possible nationalist outbursts” with relation to the issue.
With regard to Croatia, Mr. Szijjártó told the press: “Hungary’s position is clear and a matter of principle”; the Croatian government initiated international arbitration proceedings against MOL and lost the case, but instead of implementing the ruling has decided to ignore it. The OECD is an international economic organisation whose operations are based on respect for the decisions of international arbitration tribunals, and as long as Croatia continues to ignore such decisions, the Hungarian Government cannot support the country’s bid for membership of the OECD, he explained.
“It may seem like something new that Hungarian foreign policy is taking an extremely firm stance” in support of Hungarian interests and the interests of Hungarians living across the border, but this will always continue to be the case in future and “the time has come for everyone to get used to it”, the Hungarian Foreign Minister emphasised.