BUDAPEST, March 4. /TASS/. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto is expected to hold talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Tuesday to discuss ways of resolving the conflict in Ukraine and possibilities for easing the US anti-Russian sanctions.
Szijjarto and Rubio will focus "on key bilateral and global issues," State Secretary for International Communication and Relations at the prime minister’s office Zoltan Kovacs wrote on his X page.
Ahead of his visit to the United States, the top Hungarian diplomat told reporters that the central topic of Hungary’s discussions with the United States is the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis.
Apart from that, the topic of lifting some of the US anti-Russian sanctions in the energy sector that are harming Hungary also tops the agenda of talks with the US administration. During his previous visit to Washington on February 19 and 20, he addressed this matter at meetings with Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz.
On January 10, 2025, the previous US administration announced a large-scale package of sanctions against the Russian oil and gas sector, as well as top executives of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, including its CEO Alexey Likhachev. In November 2024, the United States imposed sanctions on Russia’s Gaprombank through which Hungary paid for Russian oil and gas and the construction of the second unit at the Paks nuclear power plant. Moscow and Budapest had to look for alternative options for payment.