Hungary will not stop buying Russian oil, even if its ally, US President Donald Trump, asks it to, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said, citing landlocked geographical constraints, UNN reports with reference to Bloomberg.
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Speaking to reporters on Tuesday at a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the UN, Trump said he could use his good relations with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to ask him to stop buying Russian oil. Hungary's top diplomat said this was not an option.
"We are a landlocked country," Szijjártó told ATV television in an interview on Tuesday evening from New York, where he was also attending the UN General Assembly. "It would be great if we had access to the sea, we could build an oil refinery or an LNG terminal on the coast and cover the entire world market. But that's not the case."
These comments, it is noted, "underscore Hungary's precarious position," maneuvering on Orbán's close ties with both Trump and Kremlin head Vladimir Putin. The EU is struggling to overcome Hungary's and Slovakia's resistance to stricter sanctions on Russian energy imports, the publication writes.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul emphasized the irony of Trump making this demand of his closest ally in the EU, as well as Slovakia.
"If Mr. Orbán feels pressure from Donald Trump to finally switch to other energy sources, then this is a positive development from Europe's point of view," Wadephul said on Deutschlandfunk radio on Wednesday.
The European Commission, the EU's executive body, is reviewing trade measures targeting Russian oil imports via the Druzhba pipeline, which supplies oil to Hungary and Slovakia, Bloomberg reported earlier.
Budapest and Bratislava have so far been unwilling to diversify supplies, abandoning Russian oil supplies, and have blocked measures they believe jeopardize their energy security.
Critics argue that the Orbán government, which significantly increased purchases of Russian oil and natural gas after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has not taken sufficient steps to diversify energy supplies.
Alternative pipeline
The Hungarian government has prioritized Russian oil imports over an alternative pipeline through Croatia, stating that tariffs on the latter are too high and capacity may not be sufficient to fully meet the country's needs.
Slovakia, which receives oil, including from Russia via Hungary, also said last week that alternative options need to be developed before abandoning Russian energy.
Hungary and Slovakia have received temporary exemptions from EU sanctions on the purchase of Russian pipeline oil. The bloc is currently considering a 19th package of sanctions, which may include sanctions against companies in India and China that facilitate trade in Russian oil.