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Hungarian Foreign Minister Defends Russian Oil Imports, Criticizes EU Energy Policies
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![Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko]( "Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko")
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó commented on energy imports during a press conference on Friday following the meeting of the joint Hungarian-Azerbaijani Economic Committee.
According to Telex on September 5, his remarks came in response to reports that US President Donald Trump had recently urged European countries to stop purchasing Russian crude oil.
“Let us not be fooled by the hypocrites, because a significant number of those who are the most vocal in criticizing Hungary and Slovakia for their oil purchases are also buying Russian oil, only indirectly, through certain Asian countries. (...) They do this so that they can buy the oil more cheaply,” Szijjártó said.
According to him, while other countries continue to buy Russian oil in secret because of lower prices, Hungary does so openly, as it has no alternative.
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The minister emphasized that energy purchases are determined by physical infrastructure, and that supplies can only be transported via available pipelines.
“And the fact that Hungary is cooperating with Russia in regard to its energy security is largely due to the fact that the European Union rejected our request for help in increasing the capacity of the natural gas pipelines in Southeast Europe. And instead of increasing the capacity of the alternative pipeline leading to us, Croatia increased the transit fee payable for transportation to five times the European benchmark,” he added.
Earlier, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced that Budapest will refuse to back the launch of the first cluster of accession negotiations on Ukraine’s path toward European Union membership.
