BUDAPEST, November 10. /TASS/. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban believes he and US President Donald Trump have an understanding that Hungary will be exempted from US sanctions on Russian oil indefinitely, not just for a short time.

The two leaders discussed the issue during their meeting at the White House on November 7.

"President Trump and I have a handshake agreement that Hungary will be exempted from US oil sanctions indefinitely. As long as he is the president there and I am the prime minister here, no sanctions will be imposed," Orban wrote on Facebook (banned in Russia; owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist in the country).

Orban’s post comes in the wake of unnamed US administration officials telling Reuters that Hungary would be excused from sanctions on Russian oil and gas supplies for only one year. The prime minister and Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who also took part in the White House talks, denied those claims, emphasizing that Trump never mentioned any specific timeframe. However, Szijjarto admitted that it remains unclear how US government agencies will formally word this decision in official documents.

In essence, the statements by the Hungarian government and US officials are not fundamentally at odds with each other. Even if Hungary initially receives a one-year exemption, Trump’s assurance suggests that the waiver will be automatically extended thereafter.

Sanctions against Russian oil

Sanctions restricting Russian gas supplies via the TurkStream pipeline - including related payments through Gazprombank - were introduced by the Biden administration. These measures were suspended by Trump’s government, which nonetheless recently imposed sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, affecting deliveries through the Druzhba oil pipeline. Washington hoped to pressure Moscow into changing its approach to the Ukrainian conflict.

At the White House meeting, Orban persuaded Trump to lift these restrictions, stressing that Hungary cannot yet function without Russian energy. The prime minister later said that sanctions involving the Druzhba and TurkStream pipelines are now off the table. Deliveries of raw materials and fuel to Hungary and Slovakia via these routes also remain exempt from EU restrictions.

During Orban’s visit to Washington, Szijjarto recalled that in 2024, Hungary received 8.5 billion cubic meters of gas via TurkStream and 5 million tons of oil via Druzhba, noting that "roughly the same volume of supplies is expected this year.".