BUDAPEST, December 8. /TASS/. Hungary relies on Turkey as an ally in its fight with the European Union and Ukraine for its energy security, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said after a meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, in Istanbul.

Szijjarto is accompanying Prime Minister Viktor Orban at a meeting of the bilateral high-level strategic cooperation council. "Brussels and Kiev keep on challenging Hungary’s energy security. And Turkey is our major ally in struggling with them for our energy security," he said in an interview with the M1 television channel.

He recalled that Hungary receives Russian gas via the Turk Stream pipeline, which runs further to Slovakia. This year, the volume of this gas is expected to reach 8 billion cubic meters. "It is in our fundamental interests to ensure the smooth operation of this transport route and the Turkish government made it clear that it will always act in an appropriate way and Turkey, as a reliable transit country, guarantees uninterrupted natural gas supplies to Hungary," the top Hungarian diplomat noted.

"In Washington, we agreed that there will be no legal obstacles to continue purchasing Russian oil and gas in order to ensure our country’s energy security. In Moscow, we agreed to continue supplies of oil and natural gas, and in Turkey, they reassured us that they will guarantee a route for that," he said.

However, in his words, Budapest now has to "fight with Brussels and Kiev every day to ensure uninterrupted energy supplies to our country in line with the agreements with Washington, Moscow, and Ankara," Szijjarto said, recalling Ukraine’s attacks on pipelines running from Russia to Europe and tankers in the Black Sea.

"Along with the Turks, we have condemned the recent attacks on energy transportation routes, either Black Sea tankers or Russia oil pipelines," he added.