Hungarian foreign minister discusses cooperation with Gazprom board chairman

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó held talks with Viktor Zubkov, chairman of the board of Russia’s national gas company Gazprom, in Budapest on Monday, the foreign ministry said.

Gazprom plays a leading role in supplying gas to Hungary and will most probably continue to do so in the wake of prospective infrastructure projects in the region, a ministry statement cited Szijjártó as saying after the talks.

“As Hungary has a vested interest in long-term, predictable and reliable cooperation with Gazprom, it is prepared to launch talks on a new long-term gas supply agreement with the company,” he said.

Szijjártó said that a possible cooperation between Hungary and Gazprom on the use of natural gas for transport purposes has “particularly positive prospects”.

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The use of natural gas in transport may play a major role in reducing greenhouse emissions which is crucial for meeting climate objectives, he said.

Cooperation between Gazprom and the Hungarian government could therefore be a major step forward, Szijjártó said.

As we wrote a few weeks ago, Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev paid a visit to the Paks nuclear power plant to review progress on an upgrade there.