“For the first time in years, the international political situation is such that it is having a favourable effect on the development of Hungarian-Russian relations”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said following a meeting with Russian Minister of Health Veronika Skvortsova.
“In recent years we have received continuous criticism from the western world for maintaining pragmatic relations with Russia, but today, these are the kind of relations that the western world is also aspiring to”, the Minister explained.
“The topics of discussion at Thursday’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin will include energy, education and heavy industry, in addition to several pharmaceutical industry and agricultural investment projects”, Ms. Szijjártó told the press.
“Hungarian steel producer Dunaferr will also be on the agenda, with relation to which the Russian party is open to realising another significant investment this year. With regard to the pharmaceutical industry, Richter and Egis have both been awarded licences to export to and in part manufacture in Russia”, he said, adding: “Richter is the second largest player on the Russian prescription pharmacy market; the Russian Government is striving to achieve close cooperation within the pharmaceutical industry and Richter could become the flagship of this cooperation”.
“The parties are providing 200 scholarship places each to enable students to attend universities in each other’s countries, and these places will be fully filled by September”, the Foreign Minister said.
Mr. Szijjártó also mentioned that several agricultural projects have recently been realised in Russia based on Hungarian technology, and the Government would like this trend to continue with relation to water management.
With relation to energy, the Hungarian Foreign Minister said: “The Hungarian Government has requested, and the Russian Government has promised” a continued positive approach to oil and gas extraction in Russia on the part of Hungarian energy company MOL. “The company has invested 1.3 billion dollars in Russia so far and 6.5 percent of MOL’s oil production is currently derived from Russia”, he pointed out.
“In accordance with the agreement signed two years ago, all details concerning long-term Hungarian-Russian natural gas purchasing were concluded last year, meaning we are now in the comfortable position of being able to begin discussions on the situation following 2021. Hungary’s energy security is being endangered by several factors, such as the undermining of the South Stream gas pipeline and the fact that Croatia and Romania have still not conformed to EU requirements to allow the bidirectional flow of gas”, he explained. “This means that our most reliable energy supplier is currently Russia”, he added.
“We are ‘ready to jump’ with relation to the Paks 2 nuclear power plant project and are waiting for the final permit from the EU before beginning the expansion”, Mr. Szijjártó stated.
“The Hungarian economy has lost 6.7 billion dollars in exports since the introduction of the Russian sanctions and the measures have led to a reduction in revenues for Hungarian enterprises and have endangered Hungarian jobs. Our approach to the sanctions, which have proven to be unsuccessful from both a political and economic perspective, continues to concentrate solely on Hungarian interests”, he explained, adding that: “It cannot be Europe’s goal to be on bad terms with everybody; pragmatic cooperation with Russia is required”.
In reply to a question, Mr. Szijjártó also stated that Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty cannot be questioned and everyone must adhere to international treaties and laws, but the sanctions have done nothing to further the implementation of the Minsk agreements and have not proven to be an effective instrument in this respect. “There must be a top-level political debate within the EU on the extension of the sanctions”, he said.
With regard to the Paks nuclear power plant expansion project, he told reporters that if an opportunity arose that as financially more favourable for Hungary, then the Government would take the necessary action, but no proposal of this nature has been put forward by the Ministry for National Economy.
In reply to another question, Mr. Szijjártó said that Hungarian airline Malév is often mentioned during negotiations with Russia and will also be on the agenda on Thursday, and a possible agreement is taking shape.
The Hungarian Foreign Minister told reporters that he had held a meeting with the Russian Minister of Health, who is also Co-Chair of the Hungarian-Russian Economic Joint Committee, and that they had completed the finishing touches prior to Thursday’s summit.
Mr. Szijjártó announced that later in the day he would be meeting with CEO of Rosatom Alexey Likhachev. On Wednesday evening he will be meeting his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, while on Thursday morning he will be holding talks with Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov. Russian President Vladimir Putin will be arriving in Budapest at around midday on Thursday, and following private talks with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán there will be a plenary session and a joint press conference, the Hungarian Foreign Minister told reporters.