MOSCOW, July 21. /TASS/. Moscow and Budapest continue to cooperate despite the difficult international situation and sanctions pressure on Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday in opening remarks at a meeting with his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto.
"Despite the difficult international situation, despite the desire of some of our partners to increase sanctions pressure on Russia, our interaction continues, and last year we managed to overcome the recession caused by the pandemic and achieve an increase of more than 25% in our trade turnover," Lavrov said.
The Russian foreign minister also said Moscow and Budapest are together intent on implementation of joint projects in the field of energy and transport.
"We note the mutual determination of the Russian-Hungarian leadership, [the leadership] of our countries, to promote our interaction, our partnership, including the implementation of major joint projects in energy, transport and other fields," he said. "So, I consider your visit absolutely timely, including in order to continue our trust-based exchange of views on regional and international issues."
The Hungarian Foreign Ministry said Szijjarto is also scheduled to meet with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov and will discuss an additional purchase of 700 million cubic meters of gas for Hungary.