US President Donald Trump on Friday said he is considering granting Hungary an exemption from sanctions on Russian oil to help the landlocked European nation secure its energy supplis. Speaking at a joint meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Trump stated that the United States is “looking at” Orban’s request for an exemption from the Russian oil sanctions imposed last month.
“We’re looking at it because it’s very difficult for him to get the oil and gas from other areas,” Trump told reporters during the bilateral lunch with the Hungarian Prime Minister. “They don’t have the advantage of having seas. It’s a great country. It’s a big country. But they don’t have a sea, they don’t have the ports. And so they have a difficult problem.”
Vice President, JD Vance, State Secretary Marco Rubio and US Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, also attended the bilateral lunch alongside POTUS. Trump’s remarks come weeks after his administration imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia’s state-run oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil in October, after Moscow pulled out of talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, as per Fox News.
“Every time I speak to Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don’t go anywhere,” Trump had said at the time, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I just felt it was time. We’ve waited a long time.”
The sanctions, which were among the harshest measures taken by Trump since returning to office, aimed to pressure Moscow into concessions over its ongoing invasion of Ukraine. However, Hungary, which relies heavily on Russian oil and gas delivered through pipelines, has long resisted strict energy sanctions on Moscow. Orban, one of Europe’s few leaders maintaining close ties with Russia, called the move “a mistake” from Hungary’s point of view.
“We are thinking about how to build a sustainable system for the Hungarian economy because Hungary is very dependent on Russian oil and gas,” Orban said last month. “Without them, energy prices will skyrocket, causing shortages in our supplies,” Fox News quoted. Orban said before Friday’s meeting that the pipeline network bringing oil and gas to Hungary is “vital” and that he intended to press his case directly with Trump.
During their talks, Trump and Orban also discussed the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Trump suggested the war “will end soon,” adding, “The basic dispute is they just don’t want to stop yet. And I think they will. I think it’s taking a big toll on Russia.” Both leaders agreed it would take a “miracle” for Ukraine to win the war.
The two men also exchanged praise during the meeting. Trump described Orban as “a great leader,” particularly lauding his strict immigration policies. “He’s respected all over. Not necessarily liked by some of the leaders, but those leaders have proven to be wrong,” Trump said. “If you look at his stance on immigration, Europe made tremendous mistakes. He has not made a mistake.”
Orban, in turn, thanked Trump for “restoring” US-Hungary relations, saying they had suffered under the Biden administration.
“After you left the presidency, everything was basically blocked, ruined, and cancelled. A lot of harm done by the previous administration. In the last ten months, President, what you have done, we are very much grateful for that,” Orban said. “You restored the old level of the relationship. You improved the bilateral relations. You repaired what was done badly by the previous administration,” Fox News reported.
However, the White House did not immediately comment on when a final decision regarding Hungary’s exemption request would be made. (With Inputs from ANI).
