Hopefully, the European Union and Russia will return to the mutual respect-based cooperation, which was the long-time basis of the economic growth model, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjárto said in Moscow on Friday. Speaking at a panel discussion at the Russian Energy Week (REW) international forum, Hungary's foreign minister stressed that in the past, European economic growth was based on a combination of highly advanced Western technologies and easily available, relatively cheap energy sources from the East, a model that has now unfortunately been dismantled.
We hope that one day we can return to cooperation between Russia and the European Union based on mutual respect,
he said.
Responding to questions, the minister stressed that if a state is looking for a safe, cheap, balanced and sustainable mode of energy production, nuclear energy is the answer. He cited Hungary's Paks nuclear power plant expansion as an example, explaining that the 2,400 megawatt nuclear capacity increase will supplant around 17 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
He went on to state that Hungary considers any kind of attacks against nuclear energy unacceptable, moreover, in his view, in Europe these attacks are always ideologically based and devoid of facts.
In addition to Russia's Rosatom, US, German and French companies are also involved in the Paks project, he underlined.
This shows that, at least in the field of nuclear energy, there is still some common sense and some room for international cooperation based on rationality and respect,
he noted.
