Hungary is engaged in pragmatic, reasonable cooperation with Russia, the main reason being that 85 per cent of our natural gas imports originate from there, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade said at his impromptu press conference before the summit of the Confederation of Hungarian Employers and Industrialists.

Péter Szijjártó added: slogans such as that there is close cooperation between the two countries are certainly good for feeding political scandals. But on what gas would Hungarian industry run today, what fuel would Hungarian households use for heating if the gas purchase agreement had expired at the end of 2015, he asked.

According to the Minister, Western-European countries are maintaining substantially closer relations with Russia. For instance, at last year’s business forum in St. Petersburg, in his words, “there were more German-speakers than Russian-speakers”. As he said, interestingly, the criticisms that were levelled at Hungary at the time of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit died down when the German Chancellor paid a visit to Moscow, or when other EU leaders visit Russia.

Gazprom is not building the Nord Stream gas pipeline with Hungary, but with German, French, Italian and perhaps Austrian companies, he said. These criticisms do not emerge at times like this, he added.

The Minister took the view that substantial measures must be implemented in order for the European Union to become the most competitive economic and political alliance in the world once again. In response to the demonstration of the Momentum Movement, he said that he “would like to reassure them” that Hungary’s place is in Europe, in the European Union, and Hungary is also a member of NATO, but no one disputes that pragmatic, balanced and calm cooperation must be maintained with Russia. There is, however, nothing more to this.

Mr Szijjártó pointed out in reference to an earlier statement he made in Poland: Russia does not pose a direct security threat to Hungary. He took the view that Moscow has no interest of any kind in perpetrating an act of aggression against a NATO Member State. At the same time, he accepts that the Poles and the Baltic States have a different view on the matter.

In response to a statement by French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron in which he likened Marine Le Pen to Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán, he said: it is unbecoming and unfair to spread lies about the leader of another country in an internal political campaign. There is democracy in Hungary, and the current Hungarian Prime Minister has eternal merits in the fall of the dictatorship, he stated.

(MTI)