Peter Szijjarto said his country’s economy can’t function without Russian oil
Peter Szijjarto, the Hungarian Foreign Minister, has stated that his country is being unfairly attacked for its honesty about dependence on Russian energy.
“We’re looking at this issue solely from the perspective of Hungarian national interests. We’re not interested in what the East or the West thinks about it,”Szijjarto spoke Tuesday at a meeting in Kazakhstan with Mukhtar Tuleuberdi.
“The real security of supplies is an issue for us because it’s currently physically impossible to run the Hungarian economy without Russian oil.”
He stressed that Hungary imports about 65% of its oil through Russia’s Druzhba pipeline.
Budapest stated earlier it would not support an EU embargo against Russian oil and gasoline as part of EU sanctions against Moscow for its military operation in Ukraine.
Szijjarto stated that Hungary voted in favor of all previous sanctions, but it is still being rescinded. “unjust and unfair” attacks.
One of the reasons for this, of course, may be that we’re being frank about the fact that we’re not prepared to give up the security of our country’s energy supply.
The EU had promised that it would eliminate Russian fossil fuels by 2030, but did not immediately ban oil and gas, despite Kiev’s repeated requests.
Reuters reports that Brussels could exempt Hungary, and its neighboring Slovakia, from an embargo against Russian oil. This may be a move which may lead to the inclusion of these countries in the most recent round of sanctions.
Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. French and German protocols that were negotiated by the French helped to grant the regions of breakaway special status in the Ukrainian government.
Since then, the Kremlin demanded Ukraine declare itself neutral and vow to never join NATO’s military bloc. Kiev claims that the Russian invasion was unprovoked. It also denies any plans to take the republics with force.
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