The US is ready to discuss the lifting of sanctions measures that ‘affect Hungary’s energy security’, including restrictions imposed against Russia, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said after talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
‘The current US administration is absolutely, 100 per cent, open to the fact that the (sanctions) measures taken under the administration of (former President Joe) Biden should be reviewed with a view to their cancellation,’ he said in an interview with Hungarian TV channel M1.
The minister said the sanctions prevent Budapest from buying gas from Moscow and complicate cooperation in nuclear energy.
The Hungarian foreign minister also said that the US may reconsider sanctions that the Biden administration has imposed ‘to damage US-Hungarian relations’. These include restrictions against the head of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s office, Antal Rogan, for ‘involvement in corruption in Hungary,’ imposed in January.
Russia considers the sanctions imposed against it illegal and has demanded that they be lifted in order to start negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine.
Hungary is also seeking action from the SMO to improve its energy security. After Russian gas transit through Ukraine stopped on 1 January, Budapest has been trying to develop measures to deal with the ensuing energy crisis.
Szijjártó said Hungary had received energy security guarantees from the EU, among which were the country’s invitation to Brussels’ talks with Kiev on resuming gas transit through Ukrainian territory; Ukraine’s refusal to attack the Turkish Stream gas pipeline; uninterrupted oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline, among others.
The first two guarantees, the Hungarian foreign minister noted, had already been violated. He threatened that this would affect Budapest’s decision-making on Ukraine, after which Hungary blocked a draft document on security guarantees and new military aid to Kiev.
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