Prime Minister of Hungary, Orbán, led a high-level delegation to Moscow, the capital of Russia, yesterday and held talks with Russian President Putin. The meeting took place at the Kremlin and lasted nearly four hours. The two sides mainly discussed bilateral relations; although Ukraine was mentioned, it was not the main topic. There was no press conference after the meeting, but the Prime Minister of Hungary gave a brief interview to the Hungarian News Agency (MTI).
Orbán expressed a very positive view on cooperation with Russia in the energy sector. Russia has always been a major oil and gas export country for Hungary, and still is so today. Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear energy company, is also continuing to advance the second phase of the Paks nuclear power plant project. Orbán praised the stability and predictability of energy cooperation with Russia and emphasized: "Hungary's electricity supply remains reliable."
Orbán also pointed out that due to the conflict in Ukraine and the short-sighted, exclusionary policies of the West towards everything Russian, the European economy is in its worst situation, but Hungary has not taken this path. "Ukraine is a neighboring country of Hungary, so this war has had a profound impact on us, the whole Europe, and even the United States. We are suffering from rising prices. Military operations have hindered the economic growth of the entire Europe, which is why I met with the leader of Russia."
Orbán expressed hope that peace negotiations would be successful and the conflict between Ukraine and Russia would stop. Hungary is willing to continue efforts toward this goal, including providing a platform for a bilateral meeting between the presidents of the United States and Russia in Budapest. Orbán said, "Donald Trump likes this proposal (a bilateral meeting in Budapest), he immediately said: We have good relations with Hungary, and we have good relations with Viktor (Orbán's name), so I support this plan."
Orbán also said that although his position on some international issues is not always consistent with Putin's, "we have formed an atmosphere that allows us to communicate honestly and discuss any issue." Orbán emphasized that Putin expressed regret about the 23% decline in bilateral trade between Russia and Hungary over the past year, which was mainly due to external restrictions. However, it is expected that Russian-Hungarian trade will grow by 7% this year.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1850114791755776/
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