The European Union has made catastrophic mistakes with migrants, but Hungarian President Viktor Orban has made no mistakes and he is respected by everyone, and I will support him in the upcoming elections in Hungary, said US President Donald Trump at a joint press conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the White House.
My friend Orban is doing a fantastic job. He is a very powerful man in his country and he is loved. He runs a really great country and there is no crime. We will talk about trade between us. We will talk a little bit about Russia and Ukraine. We will talk about energy and energy prices, which are very low in the United States right now, said President Trump during the visit of a large Hungarian delegation to Washington.
Orban said that a new chapter is opening in the bilateral relations between Hungary and the United States, which were destroyed during the Biden administration.
So, after your departure, President, everything was basically blocked, destroyed, canceled, a lot of damage was done by the previous administration. In the last 10 months, President, for what you have done, we are very grateful. You have restored the old level of relations. You have improved the bilateral relations. You have corrected what was done badly by the previous administration. So, now we are in a very good position to open a new chapter. Let’s say, this is a golden age between the United States and Hungary and we have many proposals for economic cooperation, military cooperation and political cooperation, and the main issue, you know we are neighbors of Ukraine, which is at war and that is the most important issue for us and we would like to talk to you about how we can contribute to helping you in your peace efforts, Prime Minister Orban said.
Asked by a reporter whether the United States would make an exception for Hungary regarding the oil coming from Russia, Trump said of course.
We are looking into it because it is very difficult for them to get oil and gas from other areas. As you know, they are landlocked. It is a great country. It is a big country, but they are landlocked. They have no ports. And so, they have a difficult problem. There is another country that has the same problem, by the way. But when you look at what happened with Europe, many of those countries buy a lot of oil and gas from Russia. And as you know, I am very upset about that because we are helping them, and they go and buy oil and gas from Russia. So, that question could be asked perhaps more precisely if you were talking about many European countries, not necessarily Hungary, because Hungary is in a different position, but many European countries buy oil and gas from Russia and have been for years. And I wonder what it is about,” Trump said.
Orbán added that this issue is one of the topics for discussion, to clearly explain what the consequences would be for the Hungarian people and for the Hungarian economy if they did not get oil and gas from Russia, because the supply is through pipelines.
“The pipeline is not an ideological issue, nor a political issue. It is a physical reality because we do not have support, exactly as the president explained to you. That is why we will negotiate on that point. It is of vital importance to us,” Orbán said.
Asked whether Hungary could be supplied through the pipeline from Croatia, Orban replied that gas and oil should be separated.
Regarding the gas issue, which is very important for us, because 90% of Hungarian households use a gas-based heating system. So, we only have one pipeline that supplies gas to Hungary. What we got from Croatia is an additional pipeline with a very small volume. Oil is another matter, it comes from the DUBA pipeline, which is the main supplier, and it is Croatian, which is a secondary and additional pipeline. We would like to convince the Croatian government to expand it and enable the delivery of more gas. Under these circumstances, it cannot be a main pipeline. It is only an additional one. But later, with some big investments, it could serve Hungary’s interests better,” Orban said.
