Latest news with #OrganisationofTurkicStates
Budapest Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Budapest Times
FM: Cooperation with the Turkic states enables Hungary to guarantee secure energy supplies
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said cooperation with the Turkic states enables Hungary to guarantee secure energy supplies and to prevent a doubling of Hungarian families' utility costs resulting from decisions by Brussels. Before the Budapest summit of the Organisation of Turkic States, Minister Szijjártó said the crises of recent years had clearly proved that without cooperation with the Turkic states, Hungary would not have a secure energy supply. All of this, he said, had vindicated the government's foreign policy strategy, which is aimed at developing increasingly close cooperation with the Turkic states. 'Hungary's gas supplies are currently almost fully delivered through Turkiye. Large Hungarian energy companies have acquired stakes in crude oil and natural gas fields in Azerbaijan, as a result of which they appear on international energy markets with millions of cubic metres of gas and hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil each year, representing a completely new dimension,' he said. 'Drillings on MOL's crude oil and natural gas fields in Kazakhstan have been successful, and extraction has started. Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan are launching nuclear energy programmes for which they will be using Hungarian technology,' he added. Minister Szijjártó said that, consequently, Hungarian-Turkic cooperation represented a serious value added in terms of Hungary's secure energy supplies. He said that 11-12 years ago the Hungarian government had been 'laughed at' in Europe for building relations with Turkic states, but by now European leaders were frequent visitors in the region. 'It has become clear that cooperation with the Turkic states is expressly beneficial for the economy and energy security,' Minister Szijjártó said. 'We are not starting this only now, we have been developing good cooperation for more than ten years, and it is not only a good cooperation but also a friendship, a strategic alliance from which Hungary has profited much.' He added that this was the first time that the Organisation of Turkic States was holding its summit in Europe, in a country holding observer status in the organisation.
Budapest Times
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Budapest Times
House Speaker holds talks with Uzbek President in Parliament
House Speaker László Kövér held talks with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Parliament on Tuesday. At the meeting, Kövér highlighted the 'deep-rooted' sympathy between the two countries and their peoples, adding that both nations were proud of their history, culture and traditions, and valued the independence they had fought for. 'We are grateful for the gestures Uzbekistan has made towards Hungary, and we greatly appreciate our dialogue based on mutual respect,' Kövér said, adding that the two countries wanted to extend their strategic partnership to closer cooperation between their parliaments and strengthening the relations between their friendship groups and committees. Mirziyoyev expressed his appreciation for Hungary's active role in the Organisation of Turkic States, and that, like Uzbekistan, Hungary also strove for the operation of multilateral diplomatic relations based on mutual and equal cooperation. Kövér said Hungary considered western European efforts to bring back blocs 'very dangerous', and did not want to become the periphery of 'another empire'. Hungary, Kövér said, aimed to be a connecting and meeting point between East and West and was seeking opportunities for cooperation rather than conflict. Mirziyoyev is on an official visit to Hungary at the invitation of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán with the purpose of strengthening bilateral economic, trade, parliamentary and cultural cooperation. He is also attending the informal summit of the Organisation of Turkic States.
Budapest Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Budapest Times
Orbán: Hungary's energy supply is secure thanks to the Turkic countries
After meeting Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at his office in Budapest on Tuesday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Hungary's energy supply is secure thanks to the Turkic countries. At a joint press conference with Aliyev, PM Orbán said households would pay 2-3 times the price of energy if it were not for 'our Turkic friends', noting that the first shipment of natural gas from Azerbaijan arrived in Hungary last year and the country would import similar volumes this year too. PM Orbán said Azerbaijan had always been a staunch partner, no matter what difficulties Hungary had faced in recent decades. The prime minister said that at a time when global security 'is being tested by challenges', the value of 'reliable partners' meeting to review bilateral ties and assess the international situation should not be underestimated. For the first time in the history of the Organisation of Turkic States, Hungary is hosting one of its summits, PM Orbán noted. He said the war in Hungary's neighbourhood and the related sanctions had cost the economy more than 20 billion euros so far. He said that instead of isolating the conflict, the European Union had chosen to expand it and had backed war over peace, 'and this has caused a lot of damage.' 'The European economy is also in a difficult situation because the war and the sanctions have destroyed the strategic foundations of what had been successful economic growth,' PM Orbán said, adding that 'the ship of the European economy has to be navigated without a compass', which had led to a continuous energy crisis. Europeans, he said, were paying 3-4 times as much as Americans for gas and electricity, which had made it impossible to build a competitive economy. Meanwhile, he said Hungary had fought to be able to maintain energy relations with Russia, to which the Ukrainians had responded by 'turning off the Ukrainian pipeline'. 'It was after this that we made an agreement with our Turkic friends on supplying Hungary from the south,' he noted. The prime minister said Hungary appreciated that Azerbaijan has enabled Hungarian state-owned energy group MVM and oil and gas company MOL to acquire shares in its gas fields and pipelines. Hungary's stake in Azerbaijan's oil and gas fields ensures that it has hundreds of millions of cubic metres of gas and hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil a year on the international energy market, he added. Hungary and Azerbaijan have also agreed to expand their cooperation to the area of renewable energy, PM Orbán said. He said his talks with Aliyev had also covered economic matters and the issue of peace, adding that they had always agreed that the war could only be resolved through negotiations. PM Orbán congratulated Aliyev on finalising the text of an Azeri-Armenian peace agreement. He said the agreement was a good example of how a war could be resolved through diplomacy, adding that when it came to peace, every bit of success was 'hugely important' for Hungary in today's 'turbulent' international situation. Aliyev praised the two countries' friendly relations. He said the fact that Hungary was hosting a summit of the Organisation of Turkic States as an observer country proved its strong ties to its historical roots. He congratulated Hungary on its achievements, saying it was one of a handful of countries that pursued an independent foreign policy. Aliyev said Azerbaijan had always appreciated and respected how PM Orbán had upheld his country's national interests. He said Hungary had protected its national interests and had joined initiatives that had proven beneficial.
