Without the “Friendship” pipeline, Hungarian security in the oil field is impossible, Szijjárto said during a joint press conference with his Belarusian counterpart Sjarhej Aleinik. The politician added: – There is no other pipeline that can transport this amount of oil to Hungary.
He stressed that 80 percent of oil supplies to Hungary come from the east, which amounted to 4.5 million tons last year. In March, Szijjártó announced that Budapest wanted to import a similar amount of raw materials this year, and that Belarus was a “reliable and predictable partner” in transit matters.
Although the European Union imposed an embargo on Russian oil, an exception was applied to the southern branch of the “Friendship” oil pipeline, which supplies the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary with raw materials.
– Szijjártó said on Wednesday that Hungary is horrified by statements threatening to escalate the war, talking about sending Western soldiers to Ukraine, the possible use of nuclear weapons and even forced military conscription in Europe.
Hungary announces greater cooperation with Belarus
He announced that Budapest would like to continue cooperation with Minsk in areas not covered by European Union sanctions. The two parties signed an agreement for cooperation in the field of nuclear energy within the framework of building new power station units in Pakse, central Hungary.
Szijjarto said: “I hope that Belarusian companies will soon join the American, German and French companies that are Rosatom’s partners in expanding the power plant.” Budapest also recently announced the expansion of nuclear cooperation with China during the visit of the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, to Hungary in May.
The expansion of the Pakse nuclear power plant is one of the major energy projects of Viktor Orbán’s government. The construction of two new units with a capacity of 1,200 MW each was commissioned to Rosatom at the beginning of 2014. The entire investment is expected to be worth approximately 12 billion euros, i.e. 80 percent and the costs will be covered by a Russian loan.
The government in Budapest is regularly criticized by Western allies over its close contacts with Russia and Belarus. Szijjarto met several times with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Rosatom head Alexei Likhachev and other Russian and Belarusian politicians, explaining this, among other things. The need to “maintain communication channels.”
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