Monitoring Desk: In an unprecedented move, Hungarian Foreign Minister has claimed that Ukrainian secret service recorded a diplomatic event of Hungarian Embassy in Ukraine against “every written and unwritten rule of diplomacy”.
According to Budapest Times, Hungary is expelling a Ukrainian consul in retaliation against Ukraine’s expulsion of a Hungarian consul.
Newspaper maintains that Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced expulsion after Ukraine’s foreign ministry declared a Hungarian consul serving in Berehove (Beregszász) persona non grata and ordered him to leave the country within 72 hours.
Hungary and Ukraine have been locked in a diplomatic row over dual citizenship ever since hidden camera footage showing the Hungarian consul conducting a Hungarian naturalisation ceremony for Ukrainian citizens at the consulate appeared online. Szijjártó stressed that Hungary will continue to block Ukraine’s aspirations to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the European Union.
He told a press conference that the foreign ministry had summoned Ukraine’s ambassador to Hungary and told her that a consul working at the embassy would have to leave Hungary within 72 hours. Hungary’s interest lies in fostering good relations with all of its neighbouring countries, Szijjártó said. But over the past several months, Ukraine had been “escalating the conflict with Hungary”.
The minister insisted the consul that Ukraine has expelled had not broken any of Ukraine’s laws by conducting the oath-taking ceremony. He said it was a fact that the recording of the ceremony had been a Ukrainian secret service operation that went against “every written and unwritten rule of diplomacy”.
Meanwhile Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that diplomat was asked to leave the country for appropriate reasons and diplomat leading the consulate in Berehove, a Ukrainian western town was announced “persona non grata” after being accused of illegally issuing passports to ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine.
Kiev’s foreign ministry said in a statement: “He (Diplomat) was given a note stating that, in accordance with Article 23 of the Wien Convention on Consular Relations of 1963, in connection with activities incompatible with the status of a consular officer, the Consul of the Consulate of Hungary in the city of Berehove should leave the territory of Ukraine during the next 72 hours.”
Meanwhile, Parliamentary state secretary of Hungary, Levente Magyar told a press conference on Wednesday that foreign ministry summoned Ukraine’s ambassador to Budapest and he (Levente Magyar ) had received ambassador Liubov Nepop at the ministry.
He said the summons was due to the existence of a “death list” of Transcarpathian Hungarians in Ukraine, as well as a call for the collective deportation Ukrainian-Hungarian dual citizens on the Ukrainian Parliament’s website. Further, Ukraine is introducing military installations near the Hungarian border, Magyar claimed.
