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The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, has held phone discussions with Peter Szijjártó, Hungary’s Foreign Minister. Hungary is a member of the European Union, but it has been extremely critical of Brussels’ approach towards Russia and is seeking to maintain cordial and developing ties with Moscow.
Russia is working out the contours of a future collective security system in Eurasia, which Hungary may join. Budapest has expressed interest in expanding ties with the Turkic world and is an observer in the Organization of Turkic States. Most members of the OTS are also members of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Lavrov and Szijjártó discussed aspects of the mutual bilateral agenda and praised the two countries’ collaboration in the energy sphere and exchanged opinions on multiple key international and regional issues. They underlined the mutual interest in ending confrontation in Europe as soon as possible.
Hungary powers its industrial base by importing gas from Turkiye, some of which is Russian in origin.
The bilateral trade relationship with Russia has seen fluctuations in recent years: it was valued at approximately €4.85 billion in 2021, increased to €9.46 billion in 2022, but fell to €5.52 billion in 2023. During 2024, bilateral trade with Russia reached slightly over €6 billion, with the bulk of this being Russian gas supplies due to the embargo of EU products entering Russia.
Hungary is keen to maintain Russian energy supplies and has been a fierce critic of the EU’s sanctions to prevent this, claiming that proposed alternatives are far more expensive.
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