Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó received the CEO of Gazprom in his office on Monday, the Ministry said in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI.

According to the statement, following the meeting Mr. Szijjártó declared: “Gazprom is playing a leading role in Hungary’s natural gas supply, and as a result of the infrastructure development projects expected in the region, this will no doubt continue to be the case in future”. “In the interests of Hungary’s long-term, secure natural gas supply, it is in our fundamental interests to maintain long-term, calculable and dependable cooperation with Gazprom, and accordingly, together with the director of Gazprom we are prepared to commence negotiations on a new, long-term gas transmission agreement”, he added.

“In addition, there are extremely positive perspectives with relation to cooperation between Hungary and Gazprom, which would concern the use of natural gas for transport purposes”, he stated. “In the interests of realising climate-related targets, it is important for the pollutant emission levels of public transport to be reduced, and natural gas could play an important part in this”, he explained. “Accordingly, cooperation between Gazprom and the Hungarian government could mean a significant step forward”, the Minister said.

(MTI)