Hungary fully understands why Serbia does not impose sanctions against Russia

BELGRADE, Sep 3 – PRIME. The Hungarian leadership fully understands why the Serbian authorities do not support Western sanctions against Russia, including because of the supply of Russian gas, said Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.

“If Serbia were a member of the EU, these measures would not be in question. There is a Hungarian saying: “sins from the past have long shadows.” This means that the EU could and should have accepted Serbia, and if this happened, we would not have had a debate about this (sanctions – ed.),” the Hungarian Foreign Minister told the Tanyug news agency.

“We also understand that you don’t want your people to freeze to death and don’t want to impose restrictive measures. We don’t want either, that’s why we buy gas from Russia, and we don’t consider this a political statement, because for your country a reliable gas supply is a concrete and the decisive question. This is not related to politics or ideology, so rest assured that Hungary fully understands your position,” Szijjártó said.

Hungary and Gazprom in September 2021 signed contracts for the supply of 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year over the next 15 years, of which 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year falls on the route through Serbia (from the Turkish Stream) and 1 billion through Austria. The first volumes of gas through the Balkan Stream gas pipeline, which receives gas from the Turkish Stream, went to Hungary through Serbia on October 1.

The contract volume corresponds to approximately 12.3 million cubic meters of gas per day.

On August 31, Szijjarto announced that an agreement had been signed with Gazprom, according to which, from September 1, an additional 5.8 million cubic meters of gas would be supplied to the country daily through the Turkish Stream and Serbia.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary is in Belgrade on a working visit to the summit of the cross-border economic initiative Open Balkan.