WARSAW, April 25. /TASS/. Hungary considers Russia an important partner that poses no threat to it and asks its counterparts in the EU and NATO to respect this position, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in an interview with Poland’s Salon24 information portal posted on Tuesday.

"Russia continues to play an important role in Central Europe, whether we like it or not, but this is a fact. Eighty-five percent of our gas is imported from Russia, that is why it is important to abandon the dialogue with Russia. If NATO is talking about 'the dialogue and containment,' we are serious about that and are talking not only about containment but about dialogue as well," he said.

"We do not consider Russia a threat to Hungary. Full stop," Szijjarto said. According to the Hungarian minister, he is aware of the fact that Poland and the Baltic counties see the issue differently and respects this stance. "We are showing solidarity, accepting their approach and the Polish point of view. However, we would like Poland to accept Hungary’s stance, as the Russian-Hungarian relations have nothing to do with the Hungarian-Polish ones."

"We want to build relations based on mutual respect with all countries. We respect our partners’ history, their culture, their people, but we do expect others to respect us in the same way. We do not want anyone to meddle in our internal affairs, in our policy or criticize our voters' decisions," the minister added.