Hungarian foreign minister praised Belarus in New York – UPDATED

Belarus has always been a reliable partner in the transit of crude oil and no problems with shipments through its territory have emerged, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said in New York, ahead of a planned meeting with Maxim Ryzhenkov, his Belarussian counterpart.

The dependability of energy supply is the most important issue for Hungary, and Belarus generally does not get the attention it deserves in this regard, the ministry cited Szijjártó as saying.

Szijjártó pointed to the danger posed recently to Hungary and Slovakia’s oil supplies as a result of Ukrainian measures to restrict Russian Lukoil deliveries. Thanks to coordinated action on the part of the Hungarian government, oil and gas company MOL and the Russian partner’s flexible approach, Ukraine transit deliveries have resumed, he noted.

“And we must not forget that the Druzhba pipeline runs through Belarus to Ukraine’s border,” he said.

Szijjártó noted that the volume of oil delivered via the Druzhba to Hungary in recent days exceeded 3 million tonnes, and he thanked Belarus for ensuring its continued transit.

Nuclear cooperation will also be on the agenda, with the expansion of the Paks power plant having reached “another milestone”, with soil excavation under way and concrete scheduled to be poured by year-end, he said.

Based on International Atomic Energy Agency standards, the Paks site is now registered as a nuclear power plant under construction, he added.

A power plant using similar technology was recently built in Belarus, and the engineers who worked there are now working at Paks. “The Russian contractor is continually transferring the freed-up workforce from Belarus to the Paks site. So, the investment can be expected to speed up significantly,” he said.

Global powers’ failure to negotiate is ‘nonsense’, says Szijjártó

The failure of global powers to negotiate with each other is “nonsense”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in New York on Wednesday. The purpose of diplomacy is to allow opposing sides to discuss important matters, Szijjártó said in a statement issued by his ministry. “It’s nonsense for somebody to be stigmatised and called out for standing up for peace or for diplomatic solutions and keeping diplomatic channels open,” he added.

At a meeting of G20 foreign ministers, he warned against initiatives to establish blocs, as in the Cold War, and said it was in Hungary’s interest to avoid such developments, given its history. Hungary backs fair international cooperation that is based on mutual respect, a system in which countries aren’t “chastised”, he added.