“We have not paid a penny for this exemption because the President of the US likes Hungarians,” Orban said. Since Hungarian energy imports form a tiny part of Russian exports, “they have no weight in disciplining Russia,” he said.
Orbán said he generally concluded agreements that were beneficial for the Hungarian economy “both as a package and in their individual parts”, and this was the case here, too.
The first agreement on buying LNG from the United States was signed five years ago, Orbán said.
The more sources Hungary has for receiving gas and oil, the more secure its supplies are, he said. He noted that Hungary has built many pipeline interconnectors.
“For example, we have built the Slovak-Hungarian interconnector, without which we would be in much bigger trouble today,” he said.
“Today, Hungary is a country which, while buying the majority of its gas and oil from Russia, has secondary, complementary options which provide security,” he added.
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