Hungary is not affected by the expected stoppage of Russian natural gas transit through Ukraine.
Hungary will not be affected by the expected stoppage of the transit of Russian natural gas to Ukraine, as today the supply of our country is mainly via the pipeline called Turkish Stream, said Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó in Budapest on Tuesday.
According to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the head of the department reported at the press conference following the meeting of the Hungarian-Serbian joint economic committee, in response to a journalist's question, that
the likely liquidation of natural gas deliveries in Ukraine does not affect our country,
because at that time they made an "extremely brave decision" with Serbia, Bulgaria and Turkey to build the Turkish Stream pipeline.
"And those who took part in the construction, the preparation, and were there when we started the construction, they know exactly what threats we faced from our allies, they remember how our allies tried to dissuade us from this. Some are kinder, some threatening," he said.
"If we hadn't been brave enough, we would be in huge trouble today.
If we had not built the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, today it would be very difficult at most, but rather impossible to guarantee the security of Hungary's natural gas supply," he added. He went on to emphasize that Hungarian natural gas supply is mainly ensured through this pipeline, and this year more than 5.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas arrived via this route.
"Thus, we are not interested, we are not affected by what the Russians and Ukrainians get or don't get in terms of gas transit (…) There are Central European countries for whom this is a problem. In recent years, we in Hungary have invested a lot in the gas transport infrastructure, and of course we help whoever we can," he said.
NATO membership of Ukraine
Regarding possible Ukrainian NATO membership, Péter Szijjártó warned that the country's admission today would trigger the outbreak of the Third World War because of the article on collective defense. "I think that anyone who thinks about this matter with common sense does not want to cause this danger.
So the Hungarian position is clear: Ukraine's admission to NATO is not possible"
he stated.
"I want to disappoint the idealists. The situation is that when the foreign ministers of NATO member states negotiate behind closed doors, or when we talk face to face, the vast majority of the foreign ministers of NATO member states take this position," he pointed out.
"In any case, I consider it extremely unfair to the Ukrainians, the way a significant part of the NATO member countries behaves. They don't tell them honestly what they think about this issue and what their position is," he added. He then compared this to the expansion of the European Union, saying that some are promising Serbia to join, but in a narrower circle, they list why this is not possible. "It's a very unfair practice, I think," he opined.
The issue of EU punitive tariffs
The minister finally explained that only ten member states voted for the EU punitive tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, five were against it, and twelve abstained.
"If someone deduces from this that the majority is in favor of the proposal, it either makes the entire European community look stupid, or gives a pretty damning opinion of European democracy, or wants to completely kill European competitiveness."
- He told.
(MTI)
Cover photo: Facebook
