“The reason why Hungary is buying Russian oil directly is because it has no other option, while other European countries are buying Russian oil in secret, through indirect channels, because it is cheaper,”
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Friday at a press conference following the meeting of the joint Hungarian-Azerbaijani Economic Committee. The Hungarian Minister was responding to a question about reports that US President Donald Trump has recently called on European countries to stop buying Russian crude oil.
Péter Szijjártó said, “Let us not be fooled by the hypocrites, because a significant number of those who are the most vocal in criticizing Hungary and Slovakia for their oil purchases are also buying Russian oil, only indirectly, through certain Asian countries. (...) They do this so that they can buy the oil more cheaply.”
According to Szijjártó, other countries are buying Russian oil in secret because it is cheaper, while Hungary is buying it the way it is, because it simply has no other option. He went on to say that purchasing energy sources is a physical matter, and that they can only be bought from places from which they can be transported through pipelines.
"And the fact that Hungary is cooperating with Russia in regard to its energy security is largely due to the fact that the European Union rejected our request for help in increasing the capacity of the natural gas pipelines in Southeast Europe. And instead of increasing the capacity of the alternative pipeline leading to us, Croatia increased the transit fee payable for transportation to five times the European benchmark,"
he added.
Reports published on Thursday by several media outlets and a statement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have all indicated that US President Donald Trump was very unhappy that European countries are still buying oil from Russia, and are thereby supporting the Russian war machinery. Although Zelensky did name Slovakia and Hungary as the two countries that have continued to buy oil from Russia, it is not clear whether Trump mentioned the two countries specifically.
A statement made by the Finnish president after the meeting did suggest that Hungary and Slovakia may indeed have been spoken of by name, but it is not known whether it was Trump who mentioned them or whether one or more members of the "Coalition of the Willing" participating in the conversation that did so.
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