The third meeting of the Energy Ministers of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) was held in Budapest. Besides the ministers of the member and observer states, the event was attended by the Secretary General of the OTS, Kubanychbek Omuraliev and Ambassador János Hóvári, the executive head of the Representation Office of the OTS in Budapest.
After the meeting Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Péter Szijjártó said that the energy security of Hungary cannot be guaranteed either in the present or in the future without the Turkic states. During the third meeting of the energy ministers of the OTS, he pointed out that Europe is facing an energy crisis. This year is going to be even more difficult than last year since Hungary has lost about 60 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas, the reopening of the Chinese economy has caused a rise in demand and the LNG capacities in Europe are limited.
The Minister stressed that it is not an exaggeration to say that the energy security of Hungary cannot be guaranteed either in the present or in the future without the Turkic states. The energy supply of Hungary provided today by long-term contracts is coming in the first place through Türkiye – in 2022 4.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas were delivered by the TurkStream. As far as new sources are concerned, today the most realistic scenario is the inclusion of Azerbaijan which is also urged by the EU. A political agreement on deliveries to Hungary has already been reached between Budapest and Baku – at the moment the coordination of the technical issues of the implementation is going on. The first significant supply of Azerbaijani natural gas is planned to be delivered to the Hungarian network already this year. From the following year, our country is planning to purchase two billion cubic meters of natural gas from Azerbaijan. The transit country will be Türkiye – a political agreement has already been reached on that, and it is now the companies concerned that are talking about the details. Besides this, certain development of infrastructure in Southern Eastern Europe is needed, and for this reason Hungary has joined Bulgaria and Romania, and at the end of April the relevant agreement will be signed.
Péter Szijjártó finally talked about the issues of nuclear energy. He believed that in the EU a great civic breakthrough seems to be enfolding since it is now in seven member states that new blocks are being planned and built. The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade underlined that within the OTS nuclear cooperation has great opportunities since in Türkiye a nuclear power plant is being built with the same technology and contractor as in Hungary. And Kazakistan and Uzbekistan are the leading producers of uranium. Both countries and Hungary have already signed an agreement on training in nuclear energy in Hungary. “In such a way, we can take advantage of the competitive edge that by using nuclear energy we can make ourselves independent from the changes on the international market of energy, as well as the sky-rocketing prices. It was a good decision to join the Organization of Turkic States as an observer. Hungary has already profited a lot from her membership and by being a member, our energy security can be provided for in an easier way,” stressed Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó.
