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Less than 24 hours after clashing with the EU’s foreign policy chief at a meeting of EU foreign ministers, Hungary’s top diplomat Péter Szijjártó made a surprise trip to Russia.
The foreign minister sat down with the head of state-owned energy giant Gazprom on Friday, the day after a Foreign Affairs Council meeting where Hungary’s position on the war in Ukraine and its simplified immigration program for Russians and Belarusians were challenged by his colleagues.
Although Szijjártó took a fiery approach to the EU’s foreign policy position in Brussels — calling High Representative Josep Borrell’s positions “angry” and “reckless” — his tone softened considerably as he flew east.
“Energy security is a matter of national security! That’s why I’m going …” the Hungarian foreign minister wrote in an early morning Facebook post, ending the sentence a few hours later: “… to St. Petersburg.”
After his three-hour meeting with Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller — who has been sanctioned by the United States and United Kingdom for his role in supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine — Szijjártó wrote that Hungary’s energy security “cannot be guaranteed” without Russian gas.
“Hungary is satisfied with Russian energy cooperation,” he said, adding that “it takes some courage in Europe today to say that.”
Unlike other EU countries, Hungary has refused to voluntarily curb its imports of Russian gas over Vladimir Putin’s invasion against Ukraine. Last October, it struck new deals with the Kremlin fossil fuel giant to boost imports during the winter heating season.
