RT held a brief interview with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto on Oct. 13, on the sidelines of the Oct. 11-13 Russian Energy Week forum. He indicated that Hungary would maintain agreements with Russia on energy supply, in spite of pressure from the EU and Ukraine-related sanctions.
Szijjarto began the video interview by emphasizing: “We have a foreign policy strategy in which we always put our national interests [at] number one. Our national interest is to definitely have reliable, mutually respectful cooperation with Russia. Without Russian energy we would not be able to guarantee the safe supply of energy for our country.”
RT wrote: “Szijjarto said that for Hungary, the supply of energy ‘is not a political issue or an ideological issue, but a physical one.’ Hungary continues to buy Russian gas under the 15-year contract with energy major Gazprom signed in 2021, which provides for the supply of 4.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually. The country is also buying Russian oil via pipelines that run through Croatia and Ukraine, having secured an exemption from the sanctions imposed by Brussels on Russian crude oil imports last year.
“Another large part of Russian-Hungarian cooperation is the work on new reactors for Hungary’s Paks-2 nuclear power plant under a contract with Russia’s Rosatom. According to Szijjarto, the construction process has already started.
“‘The cut-off walls are now under construction—that gives us hope that by the beginning of the next decade we will be able to connect the two new blocks to the grid, which will increase the nuclear capacity from 2,000 MW to 4,400 MW,’ he said, adding that the project will make Hungary’s power production ‘more competitive, safer and more environmentally-friendly.’
RT concluded: “Szijjarto reiterated previous statements that the West’s anti-Russia sanctions policy has failed and urged the collective EU to help Russia and Ukraine bring the conflict to an end instead of heaping more punitive measures on Moscow.
“‘The EU is struggling when it comes to economy and when it comes to competitiveness, it’s obvious—there are figures—China has already overtaken us when it comes to share of global GDP. So, the EU should make the decisions in order to improve competitiveness … and sanctions [against Russia] have contributed to the loss of competitiveness, for sure.… Instead of imposing sanctions and delivering weapons, we should start discussions about peace,’ he stated, warning that circumstances for peace talks will become less favorable as time passes by.”
