Hungarian Conservative

Hungary stands as the sole EU member state purportedly failing to adequately diminish its energy reliance on Russia, a paid advertisement of the US Embassy in Budapest suggests. However, the truth is that numerous EU nations continue to rely on Russian imports, and the Hungarian government is actively striving to diversify its energy sources.

Viktor Orbán met the Georgian prime minister this week. He is expected to also attend a forum in China, where Vladimir Putin will also be present. This could be the first time the two meet since the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war.

In his meeting with the President of the European Council, Orbán reiterated Hungary’s position on issues such as EU funds for Hungary, the increasingly serious migration crisis at the continent’s borders, Europe’s economic and competitiveness decline, and the EU budget.

Hungary supports all initiatives for maintaining dialogue aimed at de-escalating the conflict and finding a peaceful resolution, Minister Bóka told the French weekly Le Point in an interview, referring to the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Foreign Minister stressed the importance of Azeri-Hungarian cooperation, which he claims has greatly helped Hungary in energy security in the past decade, and called on Brussels to ‘do more than nudging’ to help member states diversify their energy sources.

‘Since the European Union currently refuses to contribute to the financing, Brussels has lost any right to intervene in where Central European countries, including Hungary, source their natural gas from,’ Péter Szijjártó stated.

The facility aims to produce 700–800 million aluminium beverage cans annually, with approximately half of them filled, mainly to meet the demands of local and regional third-party brands. Additionally, the company plans to serve its own local and regional markets from this plant.

‘Hungarian-Serbian strategic energy cooperation is one of the guarantees that Hungary’s supply will remain secure in the next period,’ the minister said.

The minister emphasised that the current situation is lethal for Europe’s competitiveness, with gas prices seven times higher than in the United States and electricity three times higher than in China. ‘Under the current circumstances, the solution is to focus on the supply side instead of the demand and bring as much gas to the European market as possible,’ he nailed down.

The Hungarian government has offered a €25,000 grant for demining the war-torn Nagorno-Karabakh region only weeks after the two countries struck an agreement about importing green energy from Azerbaijan to Hungary.

Péter Szijjártó said the process of doubling the capacity of the gas interconnector between Serbia and Hungary by 2028 is on pace. With the two new nuclear power units at the Paks plant set to enter commercial operation in the early 2030s, both countries’ electricity supply will also remain secure.

The level of cooperation between Baku and Budapest was raised to the next level this week by the signing of a declaration on enhanced strategic partnership.

The French Senate has recently adopted a non-binding resolution that calls for the recognition of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. In response, Baku has threatened to cut gas supplies to Europe.

A new deal with Azerbaijan to increase natural gas imports may bring Europe back from the brink of catastrophe.