Hungary’s energy security cannot be ensured without the Turkic states “in the present or the future”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Thursday, according to MTI.
Europe is facing an energy crisis, and this year is set to be even more difficult than the last because of the loss of around 60 billion cubic metres of Russian natural gas, the increased demand due to the reboot of the Chinese economy and limited European LNG capacities, the minister told a meeting of the energy ministers of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS).
Hungary treats energy security as a physical issue, rather than an ideological one, Szijjártó said. “It has never and will never discriminate against any energy source or delivery route on a political basis”, he added.
Diversification to Hungary means procuring energy from as many resources and via as many routes as possible, not swapping one dependence for another,”
Szijjártó said. He said it was not an exaggeration to say that Hungary’s energy security could not be guaranteed, either now or in the future, without the Turkic states.
Szijjártó also pointed out that cooperation between Hungary and the Turkic states is not new. “Our friendship is not an energy friendship. We were already on good terms even when others were still laughing, asking why we were building relations with the Turkic states. Now, for example, they are queuing up in Azerbaijan for a photo-op, while we are gathering here in Budapest to secure Hungary’s energy supply. That is the difference,” he wrote on Facebook.
Source: hungarytoday