Trump ally Orbán pushes back on pressure to halt Russian oil imports
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Friday that he is putting Hungary’s national interests first in rejecting a call by President Trump for all NATO allies to halt the purchase of Russian fossil fuels.
Orbán, in remarks to state radio and reported by the Associated Press, said he told Trump that ending Russian oil imports would be an economic “disaster” for Hungary that would put the Hungarian economy “on its knees.”
“I told the U.S. president … that if Hungary is cut off from Russian oil and natural gas, immediately, within a minute, Hungarian economic performance will drop by four percent,” Orbán said. “It means the Hungarian economy would be on its knees.”
Orbán said he was acting in Hungary’s national interest, much like Trump’s “America First” policy.
“There is no need for either of us to accept the arguments of the other. America has its arguments and interests, and Hungary does too,” Orbán said.
Trump on Thursday appeared to back off his pressure to get Hungary and Slovakia to stop buying Russian oil, backing Orbán’s argument that Budapest has fewer options in diversifying its supply.
“They have one pipeline coming – because I spoke with, he’s a great guy [Orbán], he’s a great friend of mine, but you know, that’s a harder one for them, and Slovakia, too. They’re sort of married to one pipeline,” Trump said.
While the European Union has banned the import of Russian oil and is working to wean itself off Russian gas, it had earlier given Hungary and neighboring Slovakia an exemption until 2027 to import Russian oil.
Hungary and Slovakia, both landlocked nations, argue that importing Russian oil through a pipeline transiting Ukraine is more advantageous economically than putting in the work necessary to diversify energy supply routes. But others argue that Hungary and Slovakia should hook up to alternate pipelines on the continent.
Trump seemed to cut Hungary and Slovakia some slack in continuing to purchase Russian oil.
“I just don’t want to have people go blaming them when, you know, we spoke to them at length today and it seems like that, for them it’s a little bit,” the president said from the Oval Office on Thursday, trailing off and turning to his pressure campaign on Turkey to stop buying Russian energy.
“Turkey has a lot of options,” Trump said after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House.
“He’s a great president, a very smart man, and he’s going to do what’s right,” Trump continued, saying he didn’t explicitly tell the Turkish leader to end Russian energy imports.
“If I want him to, he will. I didn’t say, ‘OK, you stop,’ but I believe he will stop it.”