Seoul Gazette - Hungary's PM-elect Magyar offers to meet Ukraine's Zelensky in June

Relations between the two neighbours hit rock bottom before Hungary's April 12 election that saw Magyar beat long-time nationalist premier Viktor Orban.

Orban, who was ousted after 16 years in power, had repeatedly used the central European country's veto power to stall financial assistance to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia in the EU.

"I am initiating a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for early June, symbolically in Berehove, which has a Hungarian majority," Magyar said in a Facebook post after meeting the mayor of the Ukrainian city in Budapest.

"The purpose of the meeting is to help improve the situation of Hungarians in Transcarpathia and enable them to remain in their homeland," he added.

Ukraine's western Transcarpathia region is home to a sizeable ethnic Hungarian community.

Relations first soured in 2017 when Kyiv adopted a law mandating Ukrainian as the main language for secondary education.

Hungary said the law disenfranchised tens of thousands of ethnic Hungarians, who live mostly in Ukraine's westernmost region of Transcarpathia -- part of the former Kingdom of Hungary until the end of World War I.

"The time has come for Ukraine to lift the legal restrictions that have been in place for more than a decade and for the Hungarians of Transcarpathia to regain all their cultural, linguistic, administrative, and higher education rights, so that they may once again become equal and respected citizens of Ukraine," Magyar said.

"If we can resolve these issues, we can certainly open a new chapter in Ukrainian-Hungarian bilateral relations," he added.

L.Jeong--SG