Slovak Foreign Ministry representative Emil Kuchar said on August 5 that Hungary's explanation of its declaration calling for autonomy for Hungarians in neighboring countries "did not fulfill Slovakia's expectations," TASR reported. Kuchar delivered the ministry's opinion during a meeting with the Hungarian chargé d'affaires in
Bratislava, Pal Benyo. The Hungarian declaration, issued at a Budapest summit last month, caused concern in neighboring countries as well as in the EU and U.S., the ministry said, adding that Slovakia rejects the "institutionalization of ethnic differences [which] disrupts the cultural mosaic of an open, civil society." Kuchar also discussed the situation with representatives of the German, French, and British embassies, while the ministry's State Secretary, Jozef Šesták, met with U.S. Ambassador to Slovakia Ralph Johnson. In Budapest, Slovak Ambassador to Hungary Eva Mitrová delivered Slovakia's response to Hungary's Foreign Ministry.
