The national holiday and the World Athletics Championships were the occasion for the Hungarian Prime Minister to host a number of foreign heads of state and government over the weekend, but many keep their mouths shut, saying that they are not really "special" politicians - meanwhile, it may actually hurt them that Budapest is concluding more and more successful agreements for the sake of the country's energy security.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán received a number of foreign leaders in Budapest over the weekend, during which our country's bilateral relations with Serbia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Qatar, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan were also strengthened.
After the meetings, the international press mostly emphasized that in the middle of the war in Ukraine, the Hungarian Prime Minister is trying to ensure cheap natural gas supplies for his country.
"The direct goal of the cooperation between the two countries is to guarantee the delivery of Russian natural gas to Hungary via Turkey," wrote the Turkish press after the meeting between Viktor Orbán and Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Ankara and Budapest are making their cooperation even closer
"Viktor Orbán also held discussions with Ilham Aliyeva, the president of Azerbaijan, which is rich in fossil fuels, on the occasion of the founding of the Hungarian state," emphasized the Brussels-based news portal Politico. As a result of the negotiations, 100 million cubic meters of natural gas will arrive from Azerbaijan this year, and an agreement was also reached on the contract storage of 50 million cubic meters in Hungary, so a real physical natural gas transport connection has now been established between the two countries.
They pointed out that the Azerbaijani media reported that Baku is attracting more and more interest in Europe as an attractive partner. "Brussels also courted Azerbaijan - Commission President Ursula von der Leyen flew there last summer to sign a gas contract with the president - Politico hastened to explain that the EU is not lagging behind Hungary.
The Brussels news portal also sought to undermine the weekend's major diplomatic operation by drawing attention to the fact that Viktor Orbán's agreement was reached just a few weeks after the EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, declared that the bloc was deeply concerned about the disputed area between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the Due to the humanitarian crisis erupting in Nagorno-Karabakh.
By the way, critical voices were already heard before the meetings: the pan-European news channel Euronews pointed out that the Hungarian Prime Minister invited his "friends", but the leaders of the EU and NATO are missing from the event's guest list.
"The nationalist prime minister receives the leaders of Turkey, Serbia, Qatar and several Central Asian countries, which is a sign of the country's drift towards the eastern sphere of influence," the news channel says. Euronews also notes that Viktor Orbán is using the World Athletics Championships to boost relations, when millions of viewers are watching Hungary.
According to Gazete Duvar, a news portal dealing with Turkish politics, within the European Union, Viktor Orbán's statement that he invited his friends to the national holiday was perceived as criticism - since according to them, Hungary's friends should no longer be found in the West, but in the East.
The news portal considers it positive that the strategic cooperation between Ankara and Budapest works successfully, for example, in areas such as the two countries' coordinated actions within NATO - which is also reflected in the initiation of Sweden's accession process - or the fact that Turkey opens a corridor for Hungary to the Islamic world.
In addition to all this, not only Azerbaijan and Turkey will contribute to guaranteeing our country's energy supply, Péter Szijjártó also stated that Serbia will provide the transport route if Ukraine cancels the previous agreement on the transit of natural gas from Russia.
By the way, the diplomatic operation will continue on Monday: the Hungarian Prime Minister received Sebastian Kurz, the former Austrian Chancellor.
