Hungary's Foreign Minister has accused Slovakia's administration of being hostile to his country after Slovakian authorities banned Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom from entering the country, according to dpa. Solyom planned to make a private visit to Komarno, in southern Slovakia, to unveil a statue of St Stephen, the first Hungarian king. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Balazs made the comments in an interview published in the Tuesday edition of Austrian newspaper Der Standard. "The Slovakian administration is relying heavily on hostility toward Hungary. That's administration policy there. "But we won't be partner to that. We don't want to retaliate with similar methods. Instead, we'll seek alternate paths," said Balazs. To that end, he said Hungary will seek bilateral talks with Slovakia. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico had said earlier that Solyom's visit would be an "outrageous provocation" and could lead to "riots" in Komarno. Fico complained that since no official from Slovakia had been invited to the unveiling, it would be "an attempt to celebrate Hungarian statehood in the territory of sovereign Slovakia." Komarno has a largely ethnic Hungarian population. Until 1918, when the Czechoslovak state was founded, the territory of contemporary Slovakia was a part of Hungary. Slovakia became independent in 1993.
