BUDAPEST, April 1. /TASS/. Hungary and Slovakia have brought the pipeline between the two countries to full capacity to supply Russian gas due to the halt of gas transit through Ukraine, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced.
"We managed to solve the problem of natural gas supplies to Slovakia and Hungary, despite the fact that Ukraine created very serious difficulties for us. To ensure reliable gas supplies to Slovakia via Hungary even with the cessation of its transit through Ukraine, we had to increase the capacity of the connecting gas pipeline between our countries," he said at a press conference after a meeting with Acting Speaker of the Slovak Parliament Peter Ziga in the border town of Komarom. His speech was broadcast by the M1 TV channel.
"Today, the gas pipeline between Hungary and Slovakia is operating at increased capacity. We have now increased the capacity of this pipeline by 900 million cubic meters per year. Until now, 2.6 billion cubic meters were transported between the two countries per year. Starting today, this volume will increase to 3.5 billion cubic meters," Szijjarto noted.
Szijjarto added that "compared to last year's record volume, the volume of natural gas transported through Hungary to Slovakia has increased by 50% in the first three months of this year."
Szijjarto stressed that by stopping the transit of Russian gas on January 1, Ukraine had created serious problems for Central Europe, but Hungary and Slovakia found a way out of this situation. And they did this all on their own, without assistance from the EU, he noted.
"I cannot say anything about assistance from the European Union, because there was none," Szijjarto stressed. Budapest and Bratislava demand that Kiev resume Russian gas transit to Central Europe and would like to get Brussels’ support on this as well, but the issue is as yet unresolved. Hungary continues to receive the bulk of its gas in accordance with long-term contracts with Gazprom via the TurkStream pipeline and its extensions through Bulgaria and Serbia. According to Hungarian data, in 2023 this volume totaled 5.6 billion cubic meters, and in 2024 it reached a record high of 7.6 billion cubic meters. In turn, Hungary itself supplies fuel to neighboring Slovakia.