Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, who is in Washington, D.C. to attend the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit as a member of the Hungarian delegation led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has been holding a series of meetings in the U.S. capital, including on political issues and energy cooperation.
Other members of the delegation include Minister of National Development Miklós Seszták and Chief Foreign and Security Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister József Czukor, Mr. Szijjártó told Hungarian news agency MTI in a statement late on Wednesday.
Hungary’s chief diplomat told the press that he had held two meetings in Washington early on Wednesday evening: he had primarily discussed political issues with Joe Andrew, Global Director of Dentons, one of the world’s largest law firms, after which he held negotiations on Hungarian-American energy cooperation with Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs Amos J. Hochstein from the U.S. Department of State.
Mr. Szijjártó stressed that energy industry cooperation is an equally key issue for both Hungarian and U.S. diplomacy and their respective economies. The issue of energy security has not yet been solved in Central Europe and the lack of a secure energy supply represents a major security rick within the region, he added, highlighting the fact that this is one of the keys to Hungarian-American energy cooperation.
According to the Hungarian Foreign Minister, one of Hungary’s greatest problems these days is finding new natural gas supply routes. The Americans are providing assistance in this. As Mr. Szijjártó explained, currently the best solution would be the construction of the Croatian liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal, and the Croatians now also recognise that this would be a cost-effective solution. Furthermore, American investors are also showing interest in becoming involved in the project. According to the Hungarian standpoint, the – protracted – construction of the Croatian LNG terminal could be realised smoothly within the framework of quadrilateral cooperation between Croatia, Hungary, the United States and the European Union. Budapest is asking for EU participation towards the construction of a Hungarian interconnector facility, Mr. Szijjártó said, pointing out that the Hungarian party has already performed the tasks required with regard to the interconnector.
The Foreign Minister cited the Bulgarian-Romanian-Hungarian-Greek gas corridor as the other possible route for transporting natural gas to the region, but this still requires the construction of interconnectors on both the Greek-Bulgarian and Bulgarian-Romanian borders, he explained.
Mr. Szijjártó also mentioned the issues of the North and South Stream gas pipelines, stating that it was rude and insulting to Hungary that in his view double standards are being applied: the South Stream project (which would have provided Hungary and other countries with a supply of natural gas from Russia) was halted due to pressure from the European Union despite the fact that the North Stream (which transports Russian gas to Germany) has the same parameters as its southern counterpart. The interests of Hungary and the United states are particularly in harmony with regard to energy security, Mr. Szijjártó stressed.
“Economic and security cooperation between Hungary and the United States is extremely good, but the same cannot be said about political cooperation, which frequently falters, but we always inform our American partners about the reality of the situation”, explained Mr. Szi8jjártó, who amongst others will also be meeting with representatives of large American industrial corporations on Thursday in Washington.
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)
