Russian-Hungarian Summit: Ties with Russia concern Hungary’s interests, says FM Szijjártó

Hungary-Russia economic ties are transparent and “in line with the interests of the Hungarian economy and domestic businesses”, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Tuesday.

Szijjártó told a press conference that whereas Europe highlighted its disputes with Russia, in fact western European states had quietly built close cooperation with Russia. The majority of Russia’s top ten trading partners are European Union or NATO members, Szijjártó said.

He noted that

Dutch-Russian trade had increased by 23 percent since 2017, French-Russian trade by 40 percent, and the trade between Germany and Russia by 56 percent.

Meanwhile, small countries have borne the brunt of the fallout of sanctions against Russia, he added.

Hungary has lost 8 billion dollars in export revenues due to those sanctions, he said, adding that Hungary’s current cooperation with Russia, however, would help to keep bilateral trade on a growth path.

Szijjártó praised investments and cooperation between the two countries’ companies and noted a contract worth over one billion US dollars a Hungarian-Russian consortium has won to produce 1,300 railway carriages.