Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban will seek to persuade U.S. President Donald Trump to carve out an exemption for Hungary in the U.S. sanctions against Russia’s top oil firms.
“We have to make the Americans understand this strange situation if we want exceptions to the American sanctions that are hitting Russia,” Orban, a Trump ally and admirer, told Hungarian state radio on Friday, ahead of a visit to Washington D.C. next week for a bilateral meeting with President Trump.
Hungary, whose top officials have remained in contact with Russia’s leadership including Vladimir Putin, has continuously clashed with its fellow EU member states over plans to ditch Russian gas by 2027 and cut off oil supply from Moscow as soon as possible.
However, Orban suffered diplomatic setbacks last week after the U.S. called off a Trump-Putin meeting in Hungary’s capital city Budapest and sanctioned the two biggest Russian oil firms, Rosneft and Lukoil.
Following the U.S. sanctions, the U.S. has increased pressure on Hungary to cut off its reliance on Russian oil imports and vowed to work with Hungarian authorities and neighboring countries to help Budapest wean off Russian supply.
Matthew Whitaker, the U.S. Ambassador to NATO, rejected in a Fox News interview suggestions from Hungarian politicians that the U.S. is giving Hungary a pass to continue importing Russian oil.
“Hungary, unlike many of their neighbors, has not made any plans or made any active steps,” Whitaker told Fox News in an interview.
“So we’re going to continue to work with them and we’re going to work with their neighbors like Croatia, and other countries that can help them wean themselves off,” the Ambassador added.
Orban suggested earlier this week that “The battle is not over yet” over Hungary’s choice of oil supply.
So far, the U.S. appears unfazed by the Hungarian pledges to find a way to work around the American sanctions and Whitaker told Fox News in no unclear terms that the United States expects Hungary to prepare a plan to wean itself off of Russia’s energy supply.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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