Cutting energy ties with Moscow would put Hungary’s economy “on its knees,” the country’s prime minister has said
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told US President Donald Trump in a recent phone call that his country’s economy would plummet almost instantly if it stopped receiving Russian oil and gas.
Budapest continues to resist mounting pressure from Brussels and Washington to end its reliance on Russian energy, citing geographic and infrastructural constraints as well as national security interests.
“If Hungary is cut off from Russian oil and natural gas, immediately, within a minute, Hungarian economic performance will drop by 4%,” Orban said in his regular interview on Friday. “It means the Hungarian economy would be on its knees.”
Asked whether Trump accepted his arguments during their phone call on Thursday, Orban replied: “America has its arguments and interests, Hungary has its own. Our task is to express and represent them clearly. If we are friends, we listen to each other – and then everyone does what they think is right.”
Trump appeared to acknowledge Orban’s concerns, describing him as a “great guy” and a “great friend of mine.”
“Hungary, you know, they’re landlocked. And they don’t have a nice ocean where ships can sail in from all over the world. You know, they have one pipeline,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday. He was referring to the Druzhba (Friendship) oil pipeline, which has recently been targeted by Ukraine, disrupting supplies to Hungary and Slovakia.
“And Slovakia, too. They’re sort of married to one pipeline. So I just don’t want to have people go blaming them,” Trump added.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto reaffirmed that Budapest would not abandon its “national interests” under external pressure, following a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov just hours after the Orban-Trump call.
Szijjarto also blasted Brussels for failing to defend member states’ energy security in the wake of the Druzhba attacks. “Instead of protecting our energy security, they gave us lectures. And you know, this is a scandal, I think,” he said.
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