Foreign Minister meets ethnic Hungarian leaders in Ukraine

Uzhhorod, December 18 (MTI) - Foreign Minister Kinga Goncz met leaders of ethnic Hungarian organisations and churches in Uzhhorod on Tuesday.Goncz also handed out the first permits issued under a recent agreement on cross-border travel for people living near the Hungary-Ukraine border. The accord signed in September allows both countries to issue entry permits valid for five years for stays of three months out of every six.



The agreement affects around 400-500,000 people living in Ukraine near the Hungarian border, including 90 percent of the 170,000-member ethnic Hungarian community.



Goncz met leaders of the Hungarian Cultural Association of Transcarpathia and the Hungarian Democratic Association of Ukraine, as well as leaders of the historic churches. She also delivered Hungarian history books to the local Hungarian secondary school.