The Hungary’s Government would to increase natural gas deliveries from Russia, Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto on Thursday.
"I would to talk and agree today upon the increase in already available volumes of gas supplied to Hungary from Russia," the minister said.
"In the current international situation, the most important issue for Hungary is to ensure its energy security," Szijjarto said. "I would like to talk in the first instance about the provision of Hungary’s energy security for coming months," he noted. "This is one of the most important issues in bilateral cooperation" between Hungary and Russia, the Minister added.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow and Budapest continue to cooperate despite the difficult international situation and sanctions pressure on Russia.
"Despite the difficult international situation, despite the desire of some of our partners to increase sanctions pressure on Russia, our interaction continues, and last year we managed to overcome the recession caused by the pandemic and achieve an increase of more than 25% in our trade turnover," Lavrov said.
The Russian foreign minister also said Moscow and Budapest are together intent on implementation of joint projects in the field of energy and transport.
"We note the mutual determination of the Russian-Hungarian leadership, [the leadership] of our countries, to promote our interaction, our partnership, including the implementation of major joint projects in energy, transport and other fields," he said. "So, I consider your visit absolutely timely, including in order to continue our trust-based exchange of views on regional and international issues."
The Hungarian Foreign Ministry said Szijjarto is also scheduled to meet with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov and will discuss an additional purchase of 700 million cubic meters of gas for Hungary.
