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Hungary reaches gas agreement with Russia

The Foreign Minister said the two countries had identified several joint projects that Russian and Hungarian companies would be able to carry out together in third markets.

The Foreign Minister has revealed that Hungary and Russia will sign several key economic, social security and sports-related agreements when Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Budapest on October 30th.

During an official visit to Moscow, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, met with Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller, Russian Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov, Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov to discuss the upcoming trip.

Minister Szijjártó told MTI that the two countries had identified several joint projects that Russian and Hungarian companies would be able to carry out together in third markets. Among these is a contract worth over 1 billion euros signed by a Hungarian-Russian consortium on the delivery of 1,300 railway carriages to Egypt.

The Minister also said Hungary had reached an agreement with Gazprom that will see the Russian state-owned gas giant start to transport gas necessary for guaranteeing domestic supplies for next winter starting in April. “We’re currently in talks about increasing the supply to three billion cubic meters,” he said.

Concerning the expansion of the Paks nuclear power plant, Minister Szijjártó said the recent approval of the project’s technical plan constituted a milestone in cooperation between Hungary and Russia’s Rosatom, the general contractor for the project.