Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said Hungary's energy security cannot be ensured without the Turkic states "in the present or the future".
Minister Szijjártó told a meeting of the energy ministers of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS) that “our relations are not just energy friendships”. Europe is facing an energy crisis, and this year is set to be even more difficult than the last because of the loss of around 60 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas, the increased demand due to the reboot of the Chinese economy and limited European LNG capacities. Hungary treats energy security as a physical issue, rather than an ideological one, Minister Szijjártó said. It has never and will never discriminate against any energy source or delivery route on a political basis, he added. Diversification to Hungary means procuring energy from as many resources and via as many routes as possible, not swapping one dependence for another, Minister Szijjártó said. He said it was not an exaggeration to say that Hungary’s energy security could not be guaranteed, either now or in the future, without the Turkic states.