Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the construction of the TurkStream natural gas pipeline has been "the most important step" taken in the last several years when it comes to Hungary's energy security.
"The reason why many aren't able to fully appreciate the significance of this is that they have fortunately not had to experience the lack of energy security," Minister Szijjártó said in a post on Facebook. "If we had given in to pressure from our friends and allies ... and had not dared to build the TurkStream pipeline, we'd be in major trouble today with the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine set to stop from January 1."
"It would simply be physically impossible to supply the country with enough natural gas without TurkStream," Minister Szijjártó said.
"Our Turkish friends deserve our gratitude," the minister said, calling Turkey a reliable transit country. He said that thanks to TurkStream Hungary is able to import 20 million cubic metres of gas a day and had by now received more gas through this pipeline alone than it had in total in 2023.
Minister Szijjártó said one reason for this was that Hungary was the first non-neighboring country to import gas from Turkey.
Hungary has imported 275 million cubic metres of gas from Turkey this year, and the two countries have now agreed to continue the partnership, the minister said.