US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday.
Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine.
However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for special treatment. As they heaped praise on each other, Trump said he was considering an exemption because landlocked Hungary had to rely on pipelines that made it dependent on Russian oil and gas.
Photo: AP
“As you know they don’t have the advantage of having sea,” Trump told reporters.
Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said after the meeting that Washington had granted a “full and unlimited exemption from sanctions on oil and gas.”
However, a White House official said that Hungary’s exemption was only for one year.
Hungary had meanwhile committed to purchasing US liquified natural gas worth about US$600 million, the official said.
The Hungarian prime minister has maintained close ties with both Moscow and Washington, while often bucking the rest of the EU on pressuring Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Orban offered to host a summit in Budapest between Trump and Putin, although the US leader called it off last month and hit Moscow with sanctions for the first time in his presidency.
At the White House, Orban pressed his case that Russian energy was vital for Hungary.
“Pipeline is not an ideological or political issue. It’s a physical reality, because we don’t have port[s],” Orban said.
Washington has given firms who work with Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil one month to cut ties or face secondary sanctions, which would deny them access to US banks, traders, shippers and insurers.
Orban also said it would take a “miracle” for Ukraine to beat Moscow, underscoring the gulf between him and other European leaders on the war.
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