Focus on energy cooperation: PM Orbán meets Azeri President Ilham Aliyev in Budapest

Hungary and Azerbaijan have raised cooperation to the level of a “priority strategic partnership”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said, after talks with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev in Budapest on Monday.

Orban and Aliyev said in a joint press statement that the two countries had decided to strengthen cooperation because “they see that Europe and the countries in contact with it have entered an era of dangers.” The international environment surrounding them is more dangerous than ever, they said.

Hungary’s need to diversify its energy supplies increases Azerbaijan’s importance, the statement said, welcoming Azerbaijan’s commitment to improving European energy security.

Orbán said the war in a neighbouring country and the EU sanctions had made European energy security vulnerable, “creating a particular state of emergency in Hungary”. That has boosted Azerbaijan’s importance for the bloc, “although it was already a friend of Hungary”.

Diversification is the only viable solution, he said. Delivering energy from Azerbaijan seems the most “realistic” option for European energy diversification, he said.