Szijjarto: Cooperation between Serbia, Hungarian in Energy Is Strategic in Nature

Peter Szijjarto (BETAPHOTO/HINA/Dario GRZELJ)

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said that it is important that Serbia and Hungary cooperate where the energy situation is concerned and that the construction of a gas pipeline between the two countries needed to be expedited.

Szijjarto who visited Belgrade on Nov. 26 said in an interview with Serbian Radiotelevision (RTS) that the Hungarian MOL oil company would additionally boost shipments of petrol to Serbia. "MOL is using all possible methods of delivery. The first train arrived by rail, which we haven't done so far, while a second is being prepared and we are using the Danube," Szijjarto said. Commenting on Hungary's exemption from U.S. sanctions against Russian oil and gas, Szijjarto said that "we know that relations between the [U.S.] president and [Hungarian] prime minister will be good for as long as Trump is president and Orban prime minister, and that this exemption will apply."

"Brussels and the EU simply do not care about reason, they do not care about rationality, they do not care about reality, they do not care about that fact that your geography determines who how you obtain fuel, they do not care about the difference between a country that borders the sea and a landlocked one. The EU and Brussels are currently killing Europe's energy security with a huge hammer, by cutting off Russian sources of energy," Szijjarto said.

Due to its infrastructure and geography Hungary cannot separate itself from Russian sources of energy because due to the limited capacities of its remaining infrastructure we cannot obtain supplies, he added and said that cooperation between Serbia and Hungary in energy was strategic in nature. As for Serbia's European path, Szijjarto said that the European Commission had recommended member states that Cluster 3 in negotiations be opened and that "obviously Serbia is ready," but that the EU's enlargement "is very hypocritical."