Hungary is Russia's priority partner for energy supplies to Europe, Vladimir Putin said during a visit to Budapest.

“Transit supplies of Russian gas to Western Europe go through Hungarian territory. Hungarian underground storage facilities allow uninterrupted supply of European consumers, including during peak times, ”Putin said.

According to the Russian president, during a meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the parties discussed the full range of Russian-Hungarian relations, summed up the implementation of the agreements already reached, and outlined new plans for the future. Following the conversation between the two politicians, the ministers of Russia and Hungary signed a number of documents.

According to Putin, these agreements "will undoubtedly contribute to further deepening ties." Speaking about the economic interaction between the two countries, Putin noted that last year, trade between Russia and Hungary grew by almost 30%, which is about $ 7 billion.

In a special way, Putin noted the cooperation of Moscow and Budapest in the field of energy.

“Of course, energy comes first, as Russia provides about 60 percent of Hungary’s oil needs and 50 percent of its natural gas needs,” the president said, adding that Hungarian statistics indicate an even larger share of Russian gas in the import structure.

“The most important thing is not even this, but the most important thing is that our cooperation here is established at a very high, high-quality level and everything goes without any glitches,” the Russian leader emphasized.

Commenting on the gas issue before the meeting of the two leaders, the head of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry Peter Siyyarto noted that "all the necessary agreements with Russia regarding gas supplies ... have already been concluded." He also explained that half of the gas next year will be delivered to Hungary this year.

In March 2019, Budapest also received gas supply guarantees from Gazprom in 2020, regardless of whether a new transit agreement would be concluded between Russia and Ukraine. As noted, at the beginning of next year, Gazprom expects to begin supplying fuel to Europe through a new branch of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline.

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Summing up the meeting, the Russian president mentioned the construction by Rosatom of two new power units at the Paks Hungarian Nuclear Power Plant. Putin pointed out that the four units of this plant already produce over 40% of the energy consumed by Hungary.

As the head of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry noted earlier, all the necessary agreements have already been concluded in the nuclear field, the main project of which is the construction of the fifth and sixth units of Paks NPP with reactors using Russian VVER-1200 technology.

“The commissioning of additional capacities will double the volume of electricity generation and meet the growing demand of the Hungarian economy,” Putin emphasized.

Part of the station with two new blocks will be called Paks-2. An agreement on its construction was reached between Moscow and Budapest back in 2014, but only in March 2019 did the EU approve this project. In mid-October, the Hungarian side approved the technical design of the station.

Annual meetings

According to Putin, during a conversation with the Hungarian prime minister, international and regional issues were touched on, in particular, the prospects for normalizing relations between Russia and the European Union and resolving the crisis in Ukraine. This issue was considered from the point of view of energy routes and supply to Hungary and other consumers of Russian energy carriers in Europe.

In turn, Prime Minister Orban noted that the practice of summit meetings between Russia and Hungary has a long history, the parties hold them every year.

“When we invented this method, we set a goal for us to take a step forward every year. This also applies to cooperation in the field of politics, and cooperation in the field of economics, ”the politician said following a meeting with the Russian president.

The Hungarian prime minister, following a new meeting with Putin, noted that there is political cooperation between Moscow and Budapest, which is due to the geographical location of the two countries.

“On the Hungarian side, the basis of this cooperation is a very simple geographical fact: no country can change its house number, all countries are where the Lord God created them. And for Hungary this means that we are in the triangle of Moscow, Berlin and Istanbul, we lived 1100 years in this territory, and we live now, ”said Orban.

According to him, Hungary’s membership in the European Union and NATO "does not exclude the possibility of cooperation at the political level with Russia."

“We are striving for this now, and we will strive in the future,” the prime minister added.

The situation in Ukraine

At the end of the meeting, both leaders answered questions from journalists who covered areas outside of relations between Russia and Hungary. So, media representatives paid special attention to issues of the Russian-Ukrainian gas agreements and the prospects for a settlement in the Donbass.

Answering a question about judicial and arbitration proceedings between Kiev and Moscow on gas issues, Putin called this situation absurd.

“The issue is exclusively in the field of arbitration disputes, in our opinion, absolutely absurd when, for example, they try to present seven billion dollars through Ukrainian courts to Gazprom for payment for the fact that it occupies a monopoly place in the transit market of Ukraine. Although Gazprom does not transit anything, Ukrainian companies transit. It’s just absurd, ”the Russian leader said.

He noted that the Russian side is ready for constructive work on pumping gas through Ukraine, mentioning the need to nullify the judicial claims of both parties.

“We are ready for constructive work both in pumping gas through Ukraine and in delivering gas to Ukraine, and with a significant reduction in price, unlike the one for which Russian gas consumers receive this gas in Ukraine today,” the president said.

Putin also answered the question about the separation of forces on the contact line between Ukraine and the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass. Speaking about the situation in which Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky held a “raised voice” conversation with a representative of nationalist movements, Putin noted that the President of Ukraine himself was not like a nationalist.

“I do not think that I have the right to evaluate the actions of the president of Ukraine, especially his contacts with nationalists. Mr. Zelensky himself, of course, does not look like a Ukrainian nationalist, but it’s hard for me to say whether he can cope with them, ”Putin said.

He pointed out that the main issue in this situation is whether Zelensky will complete the plans he has outlined.

“In this case, it’s not such a difficult question actually - the breeding of the warring parties on the contact line in two settlements,” Putin said.