BUDAPEST, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Hungary expelled a Ukrainian diplomat following a similar move from Kiev, Peter Szijjarto, the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade declared here on Thursday.
"Following the Ukrainian measure, Hungary also expels a Ukrainian diplomat," Szijjarto declared at an extraordinary press conference.
"Hungary is interested in having good relations with each of its neighbors," Szijjarto announced. "But Ukraine has done nothing but increased the tensions between the two countries in the last few months," he added.
Earlier on Thursday, Ukraine declared that a Hungarian consul had 72 hours to leave the country after accusing the diplomat of distributing Hungarian passports to ethnic Hungarians in the western part of the country, where a large Hungarian ethnic minority is living.
"In the future we expect Hungary to refrain from any unfriendly steps towards Ukraine and its officials from violating Ukrainian legislation," the ministry announced in a statement.
The Hungarian consul in the town of Beregove has been declared persona non grata due to "the activity incompatible with the consular status."
The background of the diplomatic clashes is a history of diplomatic discord between Ukraine and Hungary which has threatened to veto Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integrations with the European Union and NATO.
The main subject of the dispute is the recent adoption by the Ukrainian parliament of a language law that puts the ethnic Hungarian children in a disadvantaged position in the Ukrainian school system, according to Budapest.
However, Ukraine affirms that the law is not directed against ethnic Hungarians, but rather serves at enhancing the education of Ukrainian, the official language.
The immediate reason for the expulsion of the Hungarian consul was a video published in September allegedly showing a Hungarian person issuing Hungarian passports to ethnic Hungarians at a ceremony in the consulate in Beregove.
In the video, a woman -- seemingly a Hungarian consul -- asked those receiving Hungarian passports not to report this to the Ukrainian authorities.
"It is a fact, that a video has been made in the framework of a mission by secret services, this is unacceptable by any standards in diplomacy," Szijjarto underlined.
Beregove is practically on the Hungarian border and is the one of the centers of the ethnic Hungarian minority in Ukraine.
Ukraine does not recognize the concept of dual citizenship.
