Slovakia and Hungary held talks on Tuesday to try to ease ethnic tensions after a series of incidents that strained relations between the new European Union members, Reuters reported. Slovakia and its southern neighbour Hungary have been locked in a diplomatic spat in the past two weeks over what Budapest calls rising anti-Hungarian sentiment in Slovakia, which has an ethnic Hungarian minority of some half a million. In August a woman was attacked in Slovakia after she was overheard speaking Hungarian on her mobile phone. Slovakia told Hungary it would apply "zero-tolerance" approach against ethnic violence, Foreign Minister Jan Kubis said on Tuesday after meeting his Hungarian counterpart Kinga Goncz in Bratislava. "Perhaps it would be good to jointly act against extremist groups that are transferring tension from one state to another," Kubis said. Hungary blames the anti-Hungarian atmosphere on the presence of the Slovak National Party (SNS) in the government created by Prime Minister Robert Fico after June elections. Fico has condemned violence against ethnic minorities but has not distanced himself from SNS leader Jan Slota, who has frequently used harsh rhetoric against Slovakia's Hungarian and Roma minorities. The foreign ministers said they would not adopt a joint declaration, as originally expected, but agreed a deep review of the two countries' history was needed. "At this moment, our parliaments and academics could play an important role in assessing our past, our history," Goncz said. "Mutual understanding will help us achieve greater respect for each other." Relations between Slovakia and Hungary worsened during the joint rule of former Slovakian Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar and the SNS in mid-1990s. Hungary lost two-thirds of its land, including the southern part of Slovakia, and around a third of its population after World War One.
