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Hungary Vetoes NATO Statement on Ukraine Over Minority Rights

Hungary Vetoes NATO Statement on Ukraine Over Minority Rights

(Bloomberg) -- Hungary’s government blocked a joint declaration by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Ukraine after failing to convince its allies to include a reference to ethnic minorities living in the former Soviet state.

NATO members rejected “several proposals to include clauses that would force Ukraine to give back rights appropriated from the Hungarian community,” Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a statement Wednesday before a scheduled visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Budapest.

Hungary’s reservations relate to a law passed in April that expanded the use of the Ukrainian language across state administration and media.

Much of Ukraine’s population still speaks Russian, even though Ukrainian has been the sole official language since deadly protests ousted Kremlin-backed leader Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. Thousands of people living near its western border also speak Hungarian.

This isn’t the first time Hungary has obstructed Ukraine’s ambitions to tighten military and economic links with the European Union and NATO. Similar steps in the past have been denounced by U.S. officials, who have criticized Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s close ties with Russia.

To contact the reporter on this story: Marton Eder in Budapest at meder4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dana El Baltaji at delbaltaji@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey, Andrew Langley

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