BUDAPEST, April 11. /TASS/. Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations Peter Szijjarto arrived in Moscow to discuss energy cooperation with Russia. Szijjarto said that he plans to meet with Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak and Rosatom head Alexey Likhachev.
"Today in Moscow we will discuss the most important issues of cooperation in order to ensure the security of Hungary’s energy supply, first with Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who deals with energy, and then with Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev," Szijjarto wrote on his page on Facebook (banned in Russia, due to its ownership by Meta, which has been deemed an extremist organization in Russia).
The foreign minister supplemented his announcement with photographs of his arrival at a Moscow airport.
Szijjarto also noted that Europe has successfully survived the winter, which turned out to be warm, and thus favorable in terms of energy supplies.
"However, the International Energy Agency has clearly warned that, due to the sharp increase in energy demand following the restart of the Chinese economy and the extremely slow pace of development of European energy infrastructure, real difficulties will emerge next winter," the foreign minister said.
Szijjarto emphasized that, "the security of Hungary's energy supply requires uninterrupted transportation of gas, oil and nuclear fuel."
"To meet these three conditions, Hungarian-Russian energy cooperation must be uninterrupted. It has nothing to do with political preferences, but is simply about physics," Szijjarto wrote.
Hungary continues to receive Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline, and gas through the TurkStream and its branches through Bulgaria and Serbia. The Paks Nuclear Power Plant, which generates half of the country's electricity, uses Russian nuclear fuel. The plant is preparing for the construction of two new nuclear power units designed by Russian nuclear corporation Rosatom.