The Russian President has also accepted the invitation to the Road and Belt Forum in China.Continue reading
Ever since it became known that the Hungarian Prime Minister and the Russian President would travel to Beijing at the same time, there had been speculation about possible talks between the two. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that “Russian President Vladimir Putin is not yet planning a bilateral meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in China, but all parties will exchange views at the Belt and Road Forum.”
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán held bilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing on Tuesday, Bertalan Havasi, the Prime Minister’s press chief, announced. The two leaders discussed Hungarian-Russian cooperation in the fields of gas and oil supplies and nuclear energy.
The prime minister thanked Russian companies Rosatom and Gazprom for their partnership and for fulfilling their contractual obligations.
During the meeting, Orbán stressed the importance of peace.
For the entire continent, including Hungary, it is crucial that the refugee flows, sanctions, and fighting stop,
he emphasized.
“There have been difficult meetings before, but never one as difficult as this. We have never been in such a difficult situation. Hungary has never wanted a confrontation with Russia, quite the opposite. Hungary’s goal has always been to build and expand mutually beneficial relations, and we have succeeded in doing so,” Orbán pointed out, according to RIA Novosti.
“Although in today’s geopolitical circumstances the possibilities for maintaining and expanding relations are very limited, it is gratifying that we can maintain and expand our partnership with some European countries. One of these countries is Hungary,” Vladimir Putin is quoted as saying in the report.
Orbán stated that
Hungary is doing its utmost to save bilateral relations and is interested in continuing economic cooperation as long as possible.
The Russian President pointed out that trade between the two countries fell by 35 percent in the first seven months of this year and suggested thinking about how to reverse this trend.
Via Ungarn Heute, Featured image via Fischer Zoltán/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/MTI