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At a press conference held together with the Azeri president, the Prime Minister said without the Turkic countries, families in Hungary would be paying two to three times more for energy than they are paying now. “Without our Turkic friends, the reduction of household energy bills would not be possible in Hungary,” he stated, adding that last year the first natural gas consignment arrived from Azerbaijan, and the president promised that this would be the case also this year.
Mr Orbán highlighted that in the past few decades, whatever difficulties Hungary has had – be those of a foreign policy, financial or energy nature – we have always been able to rely on Azerbaijan. The Prime Minister also pointed out that we were living in an era of threats, and global security was facing challenges. At times like this, it is important for amicable countries to meet and to review bilateral relations as well as the international situation, he added.
He observed that the international political situation made reliable partners a precious asset. The Prime Minister stressed that a summit was being held in Hungary for the first time in the history of the Organization of Turkic States.
He said Hungary has lived in the immediate neighbourhood of a war for three years, and the Hungarian economy has sustained a loss of more than twenty billion euros due to the war and the sanctions. Mr Orbán said the European Union decided to extend, rather than isolate the war; instead of peace, it sided with war, and this has caused severe losses.
“The European economy is in a difficult situation also because the war and the sanctions have ruined the strategic foundations of an otherwise successful economic growth,” the Prime Minister said in continuation. He said today, the boat of the European economy “must be navigated without a compass,” and as a consequence, we are living in an ongoing energy crisis.
“In Europe, we’re paying three to four times more for gas and electricity than in America, and this makes the building of a competitive economy impossible,” he established. Mr Orbán also pointed out that Hungary had successfully fought for the continued maintenance of energy relations with Russia. However, in response, the Ukrainians shut down the Ukrainian pipeline. “It was after this that we agreed with our Turkic friends to supply Hungary from the southerly direction,” he recalled.
Mr Orbán said they greatly appreciate the fact that Azerbaijan made it possible for both MVM and Mol to acquire shares in Azeri crude oil and natural gas fields as well as in conveyance pipelines. As a result, every year we have several hundred million cubic metres of natural gas and several hundred thousand barrels of crude oil more on the international energy market, the Prime Minister explained. In his words, the partnership in Azeri oil and gas fields “is extremely important both economically and from a psychological point of view.”
He also said they agreed to extend cooperation between the two countries to a new area, the area of renewable energy. At the meeting, the parties further reviewed economic issues, with special regard to “the most important economic issue, the issue of peace,” the Prime Minister stated. He added that they had always agreed that there was no solution to the war on the battlefield, only at the negotiating table.
Mr Orbán congratulated Mr Aliyev on having finalised the wording of the Azeri-Armenian peace treaty. In his words, the agreement serves as a good example of how to conclude a war via diplomatic means. In this turbulent international world, every successful peace effort is extremely important for Hungary, the Prime Minister stated.
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