President Trump said he is “looking at” whether or not to exempt Hungary from U.S. sanctions on Russian oil, the main reason why Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited the White House.
“We’re looking at it, because it’s very difficult for him to get the oil and gas from other areas,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Orban. “As you know, they don’t have the advantage of having sea [access]. It’s a great country, it’s a big country, but they don’t have sea. They don’t have the ports. And so they have a difficult problem.”
The president slammed European countries who still buy Russian oil, a criticism he has repeated multiple times, arguing that continued purchases help Moscow fund the war with Ukraine.
“When you look at what’s happened with Europe – many of those countries, they don’t have those problems and they buy a lot of oil and gas from Russia and as they know I’m very disturbed by that because we’re helping them and they’re going and buying oil and gas from Russia,” he said.
Mr. Orban said there will be consequences for the Hungarian people and their economy if they are forced to purchase oil and gas elsewhere.
“We are supplied by pipelines,” Mr. Orban said during his lunch with Mr. Trump and other U.S. officials. “Pipelines is not an ideological or political issue, it’s a physical reality because we don’t have ports.”
“It’s vital for us,” he said.
U.S. sanctions target two of Russia’s largest oil companies, Open Joint Stock Company Rosneft Oil Company and Lukoil OAO, and their subsidies.
Mr. Orban told state radio Friday he would present Mr. Trump “suggestions” for an exemption.
“I’m not asking for some kind of gift from the Americans or some kind of unusual thing. I am simply asking for the realization that the sanctions recently imposed on Russian energy puts certain countries like Hungary, which do not have access to the sea, in an impossible situation,” Mr. Orban said, according to the Associated Press. “I’m going to ask the president to acknowledge that.”
The warm relationship between Mr. Trump and Mr. Orban could help the Hungarian leader’s case.
At the beginning of their meeting, Mr. Orban praised Mr. Trump and slammed the Biden administration. He said he was grateful for the work Mr. Trump has done over the first ten months of his second administration.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Orban have had a warm relationship during the first and second terms. This is the first time the Hungarian leader has been hosted at the White House during Mr. Trump’s second term.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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