Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said Hungary will not sacrifice its energy security for a conflict “that is not our war”.
Speaking at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum on Saturday, Minister Szijjártó said it was unfortunate that the European Union approached the issue from an ideological standpoint, adding that optimal solutions for member states could be found only if the issue was “considered a matter of physical reality”. Energy supply needs infrastructure, and the procurement of energy resources will always be determined by the delivery routes at hand, he said. Hungary’s government sees energy supply as a priority, he said. Noting that Hungary had been granted exemption from implementing certain EU sanctions on the Russian energy sector, Szijjártó said the country’s supply would be impossible without cooperation with Russia. Replacing Russian energy deliveries with European ones would be realistic only if Europe could supply resources at the same price, quantity and schedule, Szijjártó told EU foreign ministers, according to a ministry statement. Hungary would be “in grave danger” if ideological considerations were to “cast a shadow” over energy policy, he said. On the matter of nuclear energy, Minister Szijjártó said it was the only cheap, safe and sustainable way to produce large amounts of electricity. Hungary finds it “unacceptable” that the EU is considering excluding nuclear energy from the category of “clean” energy, he said. Hungary has been cooperating with Russia on nuclear energy production for nearly 50 years, he said. At the same time, the Russian contractor working on the upgrade of Hungary’s nuclear plant is employing US, French and German subcontractors, he said. “That goes to show that economic players are ready to think more realistically than certain governments.” The government has also been working on “a sensible” energy diversification. Türkiye is expected to deliver 275 million cubic meters of gas to Hungary this year, he noted. Szijjártó also touched on the Green Energy Corridor, a delivery route planned to deliver green energy from Azerbaijan and Georgia. The planned 1,100-kilometre pipeline connecting Georgia and Romania would be the longest underwater pipeline in the world, he added. Increasing capacity is all the more important as Hungary is set to become the second largest battery manufacturer in the world, and the sector is extremely energy-hungry, he said. Meanwhile, Szijjártó also called for expanding the natural gas infrastructure in south-east Europe, which is key to drawing new resources, he said.