Our plan is to have a Hungarian research astronaut in the Russian team, says FM Szijjártó in Moscow

A trade agreement has been signed for Hungary to purchase a total of 4.2 billion cubic metres of gas from Russia’s Gazprom between October this year and next year, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Tuesday.

Szijjártó said from Moscow that he was also starting talks on the period after next autumn.

“Our goal is to sign a long-term agreement for three times five years which can be cancelled at the end of any five-year period,” he added.

“This would secure long-term supplies for us and it would also enable us to renegotiate or possibly quit the agreement in case better opportunities arise and the international energy market changes,” he said.

Szijjártó said Hungary was buying 2 billion cubic metres of gas to fill storage facilities this summer and transports had already started.

Progress has also been made in expanding transport routes and from next October, Hungary can also purchase gas from the south thanks to the completion of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, he added.

“All decisions have been made in Hungary to connect the Serbian-Hungarian border and the Hungarian national grid with a 15 km pipeline, the planning of which has already started,” he said.

“This will enable the arrival of 6 billion cubic metres of gas in Hungary from the south after October next year,” he added.

He also said that political support has been clearly expressed by both sides for developing cooperation in space research.

“We would like to involve three large research projects in Russian-Hungarian cooperation that already involve high-value technological contributions by Hungarian companies, industrial firms and scientists,” he said.