In a surprising shift, US President Donald Trump hinted at granting Hungary a probable exemption from sanctions on Russian oil imports. During Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán’s visit to the White House, Trump acknowledged Hungary’s unique energy challenges as a landlocked nation heavily dependent on Russian oil and gas. This move softens the US stance on energy sanctions imposed to pressure Russia amid the Ukraine conflict and raises questions about the consistency of Washington’s sanction policy.
00:00Mr. Orban has requested an exemption as it relates to oil that is coming from Russia.
00:07Is that something that you are prepared to do?
00:10And may I ask Mr. Orban a question in regards to that very issue?
00:14Sure.
00:15We're looking at it because it's very difficult for him to get the oil and gas from other areas.
00:21As you know, they don't have the advantage of having sea.
00:24It's a great country.
00:25It's a big country.
00:26But they don't have sea.
00:27They don't have the ports.
00:28And so they have a difficult problem.
00:32There's another country that has that same problem, by the way.
00:35But when you look at what's happened with Europe, many of those countries, they don't have those problems.
00:39And they buy a lot of oil and gas from Russia.
00:43And as they know, I'm very disturbed by that because we're helping them and they're going and buying oil and gas from Russia.
00:49So that question could be really asked maybe more accurately if you talked about many European countries, not Hungary necessarily,
00:57because Hungary is in a different position.
01:00But many European countries are buying oil and gas from Russia.
01:04And they have been for years.
01:06And I say, what's that all about?
01:08Right?
01:09So that will be one of the issue for today, to explain clearly what would be the consequences for the Hungarian people and for the Hungarian economy not to get oil and gas from Russia because we are supplied by pipelines.
01:24Pipeline is not an ideological or political issue.
01:27It's a physical reality because we don't have port exactly as the president explained to you.
01:32So we will negotiate on that point.
01:34It's vital for us anyway.
01:35Mr. Orban, there are two pipelines, as I understand.
01:38There's a pipeline from Ukraine.
01:40There's a pipeline from Croatia.
01:42And my understanding is that the pipeline from Croatia can provide all of Hungary's energy needs.
01:49As a result, why would you need an exemption if that's the case?
01:52So when we discuss that issue, you should separate the gas and the oil.
01:56On the gas issue, which is very important for us, 90% of the Hungarian households based on heating system, based on gas.
02:04So we have only one pipeline delivering gas to Hungary, which is the main pipeline, the Turkish one.
02:14What we got from Croatia is a very small volume supplementary gas pipeline.
02:20Okay, that's gas.
02:21Oil is another issue.
02:22So oil is coming from the Druzba pipeline, which is the main supply.
02:26And that is the Croatian one, which is the secondary and supplementary pipeline.
02:32We would like to convince the Croatian government to enlarge it and make it possible to deliver more.
02:38Under these circumstances, it cannot be the main pipeline.
02:42It's just supplementary.
02:43But later on, with some big investments, it could serve better the interest of Hungary.
02:47Mr. Orban has requested an exemption as it relates to oil that is coming from Russia.
02:54Is that something that you are prepared to do?
02:57And may I ask Mr. Orban a question in regards to that very issue?
03:01Sure.
03:01We're looking at it because it's very difficult for him to get the oil and gas from other areas.
03:08As you know, they don't have the advantage of having sea.
03:12It's a great country.
03:12It's a big country.
03:13But they don't have sea.
03:14They don't have the ports.
03:15And so they have a difficult problem.
03:19There's another country that has that same problem, by the way.
03:22But when you look at what's happened with Europe, many of those countries, they don't have those problems.
03:27And they buy a lot of oil and gas from Russia.
03:30And as they know, I'm very disturbed by that because we're helping them and they're going and buying oil and gas from Russia.
03:36So that question could be really asked, maybe more accurately, if you talked about many European countries, not Hungary necessarily, because Hungary is in a different position.
03:47But many European countries are buying oil and gas from Russia.
03:51And they have been for years.
03:53And I say, what's that all about?
03:55Right.
03:56So that will be one of the issues for today, to explain clearly what would be the consequences for the Hungarian people and for the Hungarian economy not to get oil and gas from Russia, because we are supplied by pipelines.
04:12Pipeline is not an ideological or political issue.
04:14It's a physical reality, because we don't have port, exactly as the president explained to you.
04:19So we will negotiate on that point.
04:21It's vital for us anyway.
04:22Mr. Orban, there are two pipelines, as I understand it.
04:25There's a pipeline from Ukraine and there's a pipeline from Croatia.
04:29And my understanding is that the pipeline from Croatia can provide all of Hungary's energy needs.
04:36As a result, why would you need an exemption, if that's the case?
04:39So when we discuss that issue, you should separate the gas and the oil.
04:44On the gas issue, which is very important for us, 90% of the Hungarian households based on heating system, based on gas.
04:50So we have only one pipeline delivering gas to Hungary, which is the main pipeline, the Turkish one.
05:01What we got from Croatia is a very small volume supplementary gas pipeline.
05:07Okay, that's God's oil is another issue.
05:09So oil is coming from the Druzba pipeline, which is the main supply.
05:13And that is the Croatian one, which is the secondary and supplementary pipeline.
05:20We would like to convince the Croatian government to enlarge it and make it possible to deliver more.
05:25Under these circumstances, it cannot be the main pipeline.
05:29It's just supplementary.
05:30But later on, with some big investments, it could serve better the interest of Hungary.
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