Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will meet his ally President Donald Trump next week to discuss US sanctions on Russian energy, on which Budapest depends heavily, his foreign minister said Monday.
Last week the United States hit Russia’s two biggest oil producers — Rosneft and Lukoil — with sanctions, the first such measures targeting Moscow since Trump returned to office.
Hungary — seen as the closest ally in the European Union of both Trump and the Kremlin — still depends heavily on Russian oil and gas despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In an interview with Italian daily La Repubblica during a visit to Rome, Orban was asked if Trump had made a mistake.
“From the Hungarian point of view, yes. And so we will try to find a way out,” the Hungarian premier was quoted as saying.
He added: “I will soon be in Washington to discuss this with President Trump.
“We are discussing how to build a sustainable system for my country’s economy, because Hungary depends very much on Russian oil and gas.
“Without them, energy prices will skyrocket, causing shortages in our reserves.”
Over the weekend, US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker told Fox News that the United States expects countries such as Hungary to “come up with and execute a plan” that “weans them off” Russian energy sources.
“There will be an opportunity in Washington in the second half of next week for the prime minister to discuss this issue personally with the US President,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told a media briefing alongside his Israeli counterpart.
According to Szijjarto, Hungary is currently analysing what the US sanctions mean “legally and physically”.
On Friday, Orban said that they were looking at ways to “circumvent” the measures.
The nationalist premier visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida three times last year, twice before Trump’s re-election.
Orban was set to host a planned US-Russia summit in Budapest on the Ukraine war, but the meeting was cancelled by Trump before a date was set.
Last week, the EU also introduced new curbs on the Russian oil and gas sector in the bloc’s 19th sanctions package since the Kremlin’s 2022 invasion.
Orban, who has repeatedly slammed EU sanctions against Russia, secured an exemption on oil deliveries via pipelines for Hungary, claiming the landlocked central European country of 9.5 million has no practical alternatives for supply.
The premier had a private audience with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican earlier on Monday and was due to meet far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni later in the day.
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