The contents of this website are no longer being updated. You can access all the latest Hungarian news in English formerly featured on the Hungary Matters website and daily newsletters at our refurbished mti.hu portal.

The must-have newsletter about Hungary

SZIJJÁRTÓ CALLS FOR NUCLEAR ENERGY TO REMAIN TERRAIN FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

 

Speaking at the Atomexpo nuclear energy trade, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó called for nuclear energy to remain a terrain for international cooperation, lamenting that the field was riddled with ideological debates. “As long as it is the infrastructure which determines energy cooperation, ideology should have nothing to do with [it],” he said. He said that whereas nuclear energy had been “a victim of ideology” recently, Europe had “overcome” discrimination, “thanks mostly to the fact that France is a pro-nuclear country”, he said. “We were able to win our debates in Europe and make it recognised that generating electricity in a nuclear way is sustainable, safe and cheap,” he said. Szijjártó said that severing nuclear cooperation between Europe and Russia “would be another dent on the continent’s competitiveness”, putting the EU’s green goals at risk. He said criticism of Hungary on the issue was “hypocritical”, as Rosatom was working with sub-contractors from the US, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria and Sweden at the Paks site. “This means … on the corporate level, decision-makers have not lost their common sense yet,” Szijjártó said, adding that Hungary would not adopt EU sanctions against the Russian nuclear sector, as doing so would harm Hungary’s interests.
Banning nuclear cooperation would also be “strange”, as Russia was also the largest Uranium supplier to the US last year, exporting ore worth some 1 billion dollars in 2023, he added. “I do hope that in the future rationality and common sense will prevail … and the nuclear industry will be exempt from ideological debates. I hope that we will only concentrate on professional and scientific issues…” In Sochi, Szijjártó also met representatives of the Serbian, Turkish, Iraqi and Belorussian government.