“Hungary will be continuing to support the United States’ Middle East policy within the European Union”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó stated on his social media page following a meeting in Washington on Tuesday with Senior Advisor to the President of the United States Jared Kushner, who played a major role in the development of the new Middle East peace plan.

Mr. Szijjártó, who was the only European Union foreign minister to attend the signing ceremony of the peace agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrein, reported on his Facebook page on his meeting with Jared Kushner in the White House. “I assured him of Hungary’s continued support, and told him that he can continue to count on Hungary continuing to support the United States’ Middle East policy within the European Union”, he wrote in his post.

One of the Hungarian Foreign Minister’s last meetings during his trip to Washington was with U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette, with relation to which he pointed out on Facebook: “A new situation will be coming about from the beginning of next year in Hungary’s natural gas supply. The construction of the Croatian LNG terminal will open the liquid natural gas market to Hungary. We will be covering ten percent of our annual natural gas supply using liquid natural gas via the LNG terminal, in addition to which for the first time we are in possession of a long-term gas purchase agreement that we have not concluded with a Russian company”.

According to Mr. Szijjártó, Shell will be shipping 250 million cubic metres of natural gas to Hungary each year over the next six years. Furthermore, Hungary has already connected its natural gas network to six out of its seven neighbours, and only the gas interconnection with Slovenia remains to be established.

In a previous post, the Minister said with relation to energy issues that in Washington Hungary had received acknowledgement with relation to the fact that it has come to an agreement with Shell on a long-term gas purchasing construction. “It is of priority importance to Hungary that it is able to procure natural gas from as many sources and via as many routes as possible”, the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade highlighted.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)