Trump leaves door open for U.S. exemption for Hungary on Russian oil sanctions

President Trump has granted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban his requested exemption from U.S. sanctions for its purchases of Russian oil, a White House official confirmed.

The official told The Washington Times Friday that the exemption is for one year.

The U.S. and Hungary also struck deals on nuclear fuel and liquefied natural gas purchases, the State Department said. A contract between Hungary and the U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric Company is valued at roughly $114 million, and will supply U.S. nuclear fuel to Hungary’s Paks nuclear plant.

Hungary committed to purchasing U.S. LNG, with contracts expected to be valued at roughly $600 million.

The president met with Mr. Orban at the White House Friday where the two had a lunch with other officials. Mr. Trump said he was “looking at” a possible exemption for Mr. Orban, the main reason the Hungarian leader was in Washington.

“It’s very difficult for him to get the oil and gas from other areas,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Orban. “As you know, they don’t have the advantage of having sea [access]. It’s a great country, it’s a big country, but they don’t have sea. They don’t have the ports. And so they have a difficult problem.”

The president slammed European countries who still buy Russian oil, a criticism he has repeated multiple times, arguing that continued purchases help Moscow fund the war with Ukraine.

“When you look at what’s happened with Europe – many of those countries, they don’t have those problems and they buy a lot of oil and gas from Russia and as they know I’m very disturbed by that because we’re helping them and they’re going and buying oil and gas from Russia,” he said.

Mr. Orban said there will be consequences for the Hungarian people and their economy if they were forced to purchase oil and gas elsewhere.

“We are supplied by pipelines,” Mr. Orban said. “Pipelines is not an ideological or political issue, it’s a physical reality because we don’t have ports.”

“It’s vital for us,” he said.

U.S. sanctions target two of Russia’s largest oil companies, Open Joint Stock Company Rosneft Oil Company and Lukoil OAO, and their subsidies.

Mr. Orban told state radio Friday he would present Mr. Trump “suggestions” for an exemption.

“I’m not asking for some kind of gift from the Americans or some kind of unusual thing. I am simply asking for the realization that the sanctions recently imposed on Russian energy puts certain countries like Hungary, which do not have access to the sea, in an impossible situation,” Mr. Orban said, according to the Associated Press. “I’m going to ask the president to acknowledge that.”

The warm relationship between Mr. Trump and Mr. Orban didn’t hurt the Hungarian leader’s case. At the beginning of their meeting, Mr. Orban praised Mr. Trump and slammed the Biden administration.

He said he was grateful for the work Mr. Trump has done over the first ten months of his second administration.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Orban have had a warm relationship during his first and second terms. It was the first time the Hungarian leader has been hosted at the White House during Mr. Trump’s second term.