Hungary to not support sanctions against Russian oil, gas

ANKARA

Hungary’s foreign and trade minister said Tuesday that Budapest does not support sanctions against Russian oil and gas.

"We openly say that securing the country's energy security requires concrete steps on our part. Therefore, we do not vote for sanctions that will limit gas and oil supplies from Russia to Hungary," Peter Szijjarto said.

His remarks came at a joint news conference with his Kazakh counterpart Mukhtar Tleuberdi in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan's capital.

Szijjarto said Hungary, which in favor of stability and peace, has joined EU's all packages of sanctions, but his country is still facing "unfair" accusations by the bloc.

Hungary imports 65% of the oil it needs from Russia and it cannot guarantee the smooth functioning of the country's economy without Russian oil at this stage, he also said.

For his part, Tleuberdi pointed out that the sanctions against Russia negatively affected the economic and commercial cooperation between Hungary and Kazakhstan.

"We are experiencing some difficulties in our commercial and economic relations with Hungary, especially in transit and freight transportation," he said.

The EU energy ministers discussed the possibility of a gradual embargo on Russian oil imports during a meeting on Monday.

The European Commission is expected to propose a new package of EU sanctions this week, including an embargo on imports of Russian oil.