“Hungarian-Romanian cooperation could result in a historic step forward for Hungary’s energy security”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI from Bucharest on Monday, following a meeting with Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu.

The parties agreed that Romania will be creating the technical conditions for exporting natural gas to Hungary by 2020, and that by 2022 the opportunity will be created for the transport of a significant quantity of natural gas extracted on the Black Sea to Hungary, after Hungarian enterprises committed themselves to importing the full 4.4 billion cubic metre transport capacity of the gas transport route.

“This is the first time in several decades that Hungary has been able to purchase a large quantity of natural gas from a new source that is not linked to Russia”, Mr. Szijjártó highlighted.

The Romanian party has undertaken to construct the compressors that will allow the transportation of 1.75 billion cubic metres of natural gas to Hungary each year, and to expand the capacity to allow the purchasing of 4.4 billion cubic metres of gas-a-year from the natural gas extracted by ExxonMobil and OMV.

Hungary’s government has decided to construct the missing stretch of gas pipeline between Vecsés and Hungary’s central gas distribution centre in Városföld in view of the fact that natural gas form the Hungarian-Slovakian interconnector arrives in Vecsés, and accordingly Hungary will to all intents and purposes be building the missing section of the north-south gas corridor, thus contributing to enabling the transport of gas in Central Europe in not just an east-west direction, but also in a north-south direction, which is extremely important with relation to national security, the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade explained.

According to Mr. Szijjártó, Hungary and Romania also agree on the need for the construction of a TGV-type high-speed railway link between Budapest and Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), which would be the first of its kind in the region. The Hungarian Government has authorised a budget of one billion forints (EUR 3.2 million) for the preparation of the feasibility study for the planned Budapest-Cluj rail line, he announced, adding that the Romanian party would like to extend the line to Bucharest, which we have no objections to.

An agreement is also in place with regard to the fact that two of the currently operating ten small temporary border crossing stations along the Hungarian-Romanian border will soon remain permanently open, and the two governments have begun the required legal and technical preparations, he said.

Mr. Szijjártó also discussed the Ukrainian Education Act and other minority issues currently on the agenda in bilateral relations with Teodor Melescanu in Bucharest. During his visit, the Hungarian Foreign Minister will also be holding talks with the Speaker of Romania’s bicameral Parliament, and with President of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (DAHR) Hunor Kelemen.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)