OREANDA-NEWS. Hungarian Ambassador to Ukraine Istvan Ijgyarto said that Budapest will continue to block the holding of the Ukraine-NATO council because of the Ukrainian law on education, which significantly reduces the possibility of learning in the languages ​​of national minorities.

“Hungary does not block the process of Ukraine’s integration into NATO. We block only one forum, this is the political level – the Ukraine-NATO council. And we will block it further. Why do we block joint declarations at this political level? We do it because we consider NATO not only a military organization. If you want to become a member of NATO, you ought to have obligations to respect human rights. In our opinion, the law on education is in conflict with these principles,” the politician said in an interview with Internet portal Glavkom. In Ijgyarto’s opinion, it is not entirely correct that NATO does not deal with minorities’ problems.

Tension between Ukraine and Hungary arose due to discussions about the Ukrainian law on education, which significantly reduced the possibility of learning in the languages ​​of national minorities. The law came into force in September 2017. It should be enforced in stages until 2020. In 2018, the head of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry Peter Szijjarto told reporters that Hungary would continue to block the holding of a ministerial meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Commission, because there was no progress in resolving issues that concern Budapest. Secretary General of the NATO Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance is in close contact with the leadership of Hungary and Ukraine in order to resolve discord on the languages between these countries.