Boris Johnson has welcomed his Hungarian counterpart, Viktor Orbán to Downing Street to build post-Brexit relations. The Hungarian Prime Minister highlighted the energy and defence industries as two particularly promising areas of their bilateral ties.
Ahead of the meeting, Mr Orbán said that Hungary is looking for opportunities for cooperation and relations with the UK will play a major role in Hungary’s foreign policy.
Mr Orbán underlined that Hungary’s gas purchase agreement signed with Royal Dutch Shell has great importance for the country’s sovereignty as it is the first long-term contract in the history of Hungary with a Western player.
Hungary announced last year, that it will buy 250 million cubic metres of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year for six years from Shell via Croatia’s LNG port in Krk.
Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Péter Szijjártó, who accompanied Prime Minister Orbán to the meeting told reporters that the government is working with Shell to further extend the cooperation to allow Hungary to import even more gas through the company.
Energy and defence are two promising areas of cooperation between Hungary and the UK in the post-Brexit and post-Covid periods.
Hungary is taking over the presidency of a group of Central European countries known as the Visegrad 4 from July, therefore the meeting provided an ample opportunity to discuss regional issues as well.
