Trump suggests he’s open to exempting Hungary from sanctions on Russian oil | US foreign policy
Donald Trump suggested he could exempt Hungary from sanctions on Russian oil imports, while praising Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s tough stance on immigration during a relaxed summit at the White House.
Trump also called on European leaders to show more respect for Orbán, who has repeatedly clashed with EU heads of government over immigration, democracy and the rule of law.
“I think they should respect Hungary and they should respect this leader very, very strongly because he was right about immigration,” Trump said, sitting next to Orbán at the White House on Friday.
Orbán said he wanted to revive plans for a summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which he claimed could end the occupation of Ukraine. His opponents in the EU believe Orbán is too close to Putin and call him the Kremlin’s “Trojan horse” in the bloc.
The meeting was seen as a litmus test for the White House to impose new energy sanctions on Russia’s largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, which continue to export energy products to Hungary and Slovakia. Hungary said it was seeking relief from sanctions because it claimed it had no other viable source for oil.
Asked whether he could exempt Hungary from secondary sanctions, Trump responded: “We’re looking at that because it’s very difficult for it to get oil and natural gas from other regions.”
“This is a big country, but it has no sea,” he said. “They don’t have a port and so they have a difficult problem.”
“Other countries in Europe don’t have these problems and they buy a lot of oil and gas from Russia. And as they know, I’m very disturbed by that.”
According to Bloomberg, Orban will reportedly promise Trump to buy liquefied natural gas and nuclear fuel from the United States in order to exempt Hungary from secondary sanctions.
Trump’s warm welcome to Orbán at the White House, calling the Hungarian prime minister a “great leader” and inviting him to the summit, which was planned to include a bilateral lunch, made clear the conservative courtesy.
Orbán wants Trump to visit Budapest to boost his chances as he faces stiff competition in the upcoming elections, sources in Hungary told the Guardian.
In his opening remarks, Orbán praised Trump and accused the previous Biden administration of being “rigged.”
“The reason we are here to open a new chapter in bilateral relations between the United States and Hungary is because basically everything was rigged during the Democrat administration,” he said, referring to Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
“You have improved your bilateral relations,” he said. “You’ve repaired what the previous administration did badly, so now we’re in a pretty good position to turn over a new leaf. Let’s call it a golden age between the United States and Hungary.”
Trump, who has implemented a sweeping crackdown on immigration in his own country, has again falsely claimed there is a link between immigrants and crime.
Trump said, “Look what happened to Europe due to immigration. There are people flocking to Europe.”
Explaining the issue in more sharply racist terms, Trump said: “You go to some countries, they are no longer recognized because of what they did. Hungary is also very well known.”
Orbán defended his migration policies and lashed out at the financial penalties the EU imposed on Hungary for defying the bloc.
“This is the absurd world we live in Europe right now,” Orbán said.
“We are the only government in Europe that considers itself a Christian government. All other governments in Europe are basically liberal left governments,” Orbán said.
