Hungarian PM Orban held talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Mr Orban shared a photo of the meeting on his social media, where the caption reads:
Important meeting with President Erdogan. Energy, trade, security. Hungary and Turkey are strategic partners.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed energy cooperation between the two countries and the ratification of Sweden's accession to NATO, Peter Szijjarto - Hungary's minister of foreign affairs and trade - said on Sunday.
The minister underlined that
Hungary and Turkey have enjoyed a strategic partnership, and the two sides have already agreed to upgrade this level of cooperation to a priority strategic partnership.
Accordingly, the Turkish president will visit Budapest again on December 18 to attend a meeting of the high-level strategic council to sign an agreement on the establishment of a privileged strategic partnership and mutual emergency assistance, Mr Szijjarto added.
"This shows the dedication of both countries to enhancing cooperation, and the fact that both countries clearly profit from this mutual cooperation," he said.
"Unfortunately, there have been several events recently that make such agreements timely and justified," FM Szijjarto emphasized.
Turkey plays an extremely important and indispensable role in securing Hungary’s energy supplies, considering that a significant part of natural gas supplies arrive in Hungary through the TurkStream pipeline,
– he pointed out.
Turkey’s role as a transit country will become even more significant after a natural gas transport agreement between Hungary and Azerbaijan enters into force, and once Turkmenistan launches its export towards Europe,” Mr Szijjarto added.
He also underlined that energy cooperation would take on a new dimension with the possibility of gas supplies from Turkey, following the finalization of an agreement between Hungary's MVM and Turkey's Botas on the purchase of 275 million cubic meters of gas next year.
"The 275 million cubic meters of gas will contribute to securing the country’s energy supplies and establishing physical natural gas transport links between Turkey and Hungary," he said.
"We will move forward on this issue as well, as a decision has been made on starting talks about the storage of Turkish gas in Hungary for a fee," he added.
FM Szijjarto said the ratification of Sweden’s NATO accession was also discussed, and since both the Turkish and Hungarian parliaments are currently in recess, the issue will be returned to the agenda during the autumn.
“We agreed that we would maintain continual consultations and stay in touch, informing each other on the state of parliamentary procedures and their progress,” he added.
Cover photo: Hungarian PM Viktor Orban receives Turkey's president (Source: Facebook/Viktor Orban)
