Szijjártó says result of prolonged negotiations that Moscow will continue honoring its agreements with Hungary

Viktor Orbán's meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin lasted much longer than originally planned. The meeting in Moscow went on for three and a half hours, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on his YouTube channel.

The result: Russia will honor its previous agreements

According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, "we got what we came for," meaning that they succeeded in guaranteeing "the security of Hungary's energy supply."

Although it is not clear what the delegation had to do in order to achieve this, as Szijjártó considered it a result that “Russia is going to fulfil its contractual obligations with regard to both natural gas and crude oil.”

This means that Hungary can continue to import Russian energy sources via the Druzhba crude oil pipeline and the South Stream gas pipeline. The Russian side has already supported this, the question was rather whether Hungary could continue to do it without facing sanctions, given the plans of the United States to impose sanctions. The fact that Washington would not impose sanctions on shipments via the two pipelines was already decided on November 7 during Orbán's visit to the White House. (Although there was uncertainty about how long this exemption would be valid for, whether for one year – as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said – or indefinitely, or perhaps until Donald Trump is president of the United States and Viktor Orbán is prime minister of Hungary – the Hungarian Prime Minister mentioned both of the latter options.

According to Szijjártó, the current trip has succeeded in adding substance—namely, crude oil and natural gas—to Washington's waiver from the sanctions, although this substance was already available according to the existing agreements.

"All this is sufficient for maintaining the cuts in utility costs," said Szijjártó, repeating the government's key message. "We managed to avert the danger" of Hungarian families facing three times higher utility costs by Christmas, he said, again without clarifying how this could have happened by Christmas or even by the April elections, given the existing contracts.

Szijjártó also mentioned the expansion of the Paks nuclear power plant, stating that the first pouring of concrete will "take place on February 5," meaning that construction of the reactor itself, which has been delayed for several years, will finally begin.

The end of the war in Ukraine, i.e. the "peace mission," was less emphasized this time than during Orbán's trip to Moscow last summer. Szijjártó also said that Putin had once again assured the Hungarian side that if there were to be a peace summit between Trump and Putin, it would “without a doubt be in Budapest.”

According to the Minister, "many are trying to misinterpret" today's meeting, but "Hungary is a sovereign country with a sovereign foreign policy," and "within the framework of this sovereign foreign policy, Hungary is pursuing cooperation with Russia based on mutual respect, which is the foundation of Hungary's energy security," Szijjártó said, noting that the delegation would soon be returning to Hungary.

He didn't mention the important things

The one thing Szijjártó made no mention of in his brief statement is what the Russian President had in the public part of the meeting described as a "problematic issue that needs to be discussed", regarding the energy sector. A day earlier, the Russian President had specifically mentioned the issue of importing heating elements used at the Paks nuclear power plant. Up until now, Hungary has sourced this from Russia, but at the meeting in Washington a few weeks ago, the Hungarian side signed an agreement with Westinghouse according to which in the future, the American company will also be exporting nuclear fuel to Hungary – meaning that Russia's exclusive position in this area will be disrupted by the arrival of its American competitor.

This diversification is beneficial to Hungary, but how Russia reacted to this in the non-pubic part of the negotiations remains an open question.

Szijjártó also did not mention whether there had been any discussion of Hungarian companies potentially becoming involved in Russian interests in Europe that are subject to Russian sanctions: this includes Lukoil's Balkan network and the Serbian oil refinery, the majority owner of which is a Russian company and which is therefore subject to US sanctions, so its supply of crude oil is no longer guaranteed.

Orbán was in Serbia on Thursday for talks with the Serbian president, which is when he confirmed that he would be flying to Moscow on Friday. Standing next to Aleksandar Vučić at the press conference, he said that "if the Serbs decide so," "Hungary is ready" to play a role in the operation of the Pančevo refinery.