Hungary announces settlement of disagreements with Ukraine over the "Carpathian Eight"

Hungary and Ukraine have managed to resolve the misunderstandings that arose in recent days around the new regional format "Carpathian Eight". Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orban said she had discussed the issue several times with her Ukrainian counterpart Andriy Sybiha during the high-level week of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Orban said this in an interview with the Hungarian publication Index.

According to her, the public spat between representatives of the two countries was accompanied by negotiations through diplomatic channels, which allowed the differences that had arisen to be discussed.

The dispute arose after the first summit of the "Carpathian Eight", held on September 18 in Bukovel. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented Hungary as one of the countries of the new regional format, but Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar later stated that Budapest had not joined the initiative.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha then criticized Budapest's position, stating that it continued the previous policy of distancing itself from Ukraine. The Hungarian side rejected this interpretation, emphasizing that refusing to consider the country a participant in the C8 without prior agreement does not mean refusal from regional cooperation. Details of the conflict were previously reported by Telex.

Now Orban said that Hungary does not rule out joining the "Carpathian Eight" in the future. According to her, Budapest is ready to participate in regional and bilateral formats that serve the country's interests, but this requires prior consultations and preparation.

The head of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry also reported on ongoing negotiations with Ukraine on the issue of the rights of the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia. According to her, Budapest is in daily contact with the Ukrainian side on a draft law that should regulate education issues for the Hungarian community based on bilateral agreements reached in June.

Orban expects the relevant draft law to be submitted to the Verkhovna Rada no later than October, and called this a possible positive change in relations between the two countries.

Earlier, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stated that Ukraine had fulfilled the requirements related to the rights of national minorities, and the previous blocking of negotiation clusters on Ukraine's accession to the EU by Budapest was political in nature. Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy said this at a briefing on September 8.