US President Donald Trump discussed Russian energy imports with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Wednesday.
‘We are in continuous contact with the US administration as well. The Prime Minister recently spoke with President Donald Trump, and they discussed several issues: the state of the war, the prospects for peace, global economic developments, the situation created by tariffs, and, of course, the question of Central Europe’s energy supply. This took place only a few hours ago,’ Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Wednesday.
Following a bilateral meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Szijjártó stressed that Moscow is a reliable partner in energy supplies and that, due to geographical and physical factors, Hungary’s supply cannot currently be ensured without Russian oil and natural gas. ‘This is not a political or ideological matter, but simply a geographical and physical one,’ he argued.
‘EU countries are importing four to six times more oil products from India in 2025 than they did in 2021’
Trump, during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, condemned European countries that still import energy from Russia and urged them to stop. Responding to a journalist’s question, he said he would soon call Viktor Orbán, a ‘good friend’ of his, to discuss the issue. Hungary and Slovakia remain the only EU countries still importing Russian gas and oil directly from Moscow.
However, according to some estimates, EU countries are importing four to six times more oil products from India in 2025 than they did in 2021. India has become one of the largest importers of discounted Russian oil since the war in Ukraine broke out in 2022. In August, Washington imposed 25 per cent tariffs on certain Indian exports because of its oil imports from Russia.
Szijjártó highlighted the European Union’s hypocrisy on Thursday in an interview with CNN, noting that while Western European countries claim they no longer purchase Russian oil, they are in fact importing it through Asian intermediaries. Hungary, by contrast—due to its geographical position—cannot fully free itself from Russian energy. ‘When we talk about Hungary, its share of Russian oil exports is 2.2 per cent. This means that the remaining 97.8 per cent is bought by others,’ he stressed.
‘We are a landlocked country. If we had a sea, we could easily build a refinery, and the entire global market would be open to us. But we are a landlocked nation. This means our energy supply is largely determined by our neighbours and by our neighbours’ neighbours. Two pipelines reach Hungary: one from Russia, the other from the sea via Croatia. Unfortunately, the latter cannot fully supply either us or the Slovaks. That is why we depend on Russian deliveries—and if those were to stop, it would be physically impossible to supply the country,’ he emphasized.
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