Russian oil imports/ Trump calls Orban

2025-09-25 15:49:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

According to the statement from the senior Hungarian official: "Orban made the US president aware of the Hungarian views, which constitute a rational decision in the country's interest and which are required to keep utility costs low. The president understood these aspects," Gulyás said.

The minister added that Hungary has little opportunity to diversify its oil supplies, as it has limited capacity in the Adria pipeline, which enters Hungary from Croatia. Orbán told Trump that Hungary needs Russian fuel to keep energy prices low, and Trump acknowledged this.

Donald Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán discussed Hungary's Russian oil imports in a phone call yesterday evening, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó confirmed.

"The Prime Minister also spoke with President Donald Trump recently, and they discussed several issues, including the state of the war, the possibility of peace, the state of the world economy, the situation arising from tariffs and, of course, the issue of Central Europe's energy supply. This happened a few hours ago," Szijjártó told reporters after meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.

Earlier this week, Donald Trump demanded that all NATO allies suspend oil imports from Russia to break up Russia's war economy. He said he was prepared to speak to Orbán about the issue.

"He's a friend of mine. I haven't spoken to him, but I feel that if I did, he could stop this import. And I think I'll talk to Orbán," Trump said earlier in the week.

Orbán's cabinet minister, Gergely Gulyás, discussed the content of the call during a press conference in Budapest today.

Growing pressure on Hungary to give up Russian oil

Hungary's Viktor Orbán is a close political ally of Donald Trump in Europe, as the two leaders' views align when it comes to migration and right-wing policies.

But in addition to the US administration's approach, the EU is also stepping up efforts to stop energy imports from Russia.

The Commission previously presented an ambitious plan to eliminate all purchases of Russian fossil fuels by the end of 2027 at the latest.

But amid pressure from Trump, Brussels has taken a step to speed things up on a new sanctions package, which, if approved, would bring the end of Russian LNG a year earlier, to January 1, 2027.

On Wednesday, the Commission also revealed that it could hit Russian fossil fuels with tariffs.

According to Hungarian energy expert Attila Holoda, Hungary has sufficient capacity and alternative routes to replace Russian Ural oil, but this would jeopardize the profits of Hungarian Oil and Gas Company MOL. "MOL cites technical difficulties because it does not want to give up this profit," Holoda said./ CNA