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Hungary, Turkey focus on gas pipeline projects

Xinhua, February 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

Both Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu focused on an envisioned gas pipeline going through Turkey to Hungary at a Tuesday news conference in Budapest.

Orban said both countries had to do what it took to get the gas from Turkey to Central Europe. Hungary's goal is to work together with other countries to bring the gas through Serbia and "guarantee Hungary's gas supply as of 2019 or 2020," since Russia announced it would halt shipments through Ukraine at that time.

Both men cited the collapse of the European Union's Nabucco project in 2013, which Davotoglu said had been a good initiative that failed, and the December 2014 announcement that Russia's South Stream project would be diverted to Turkey, as reasons for the bilateral energy cooperation.

Turkey is already working towards constructing its own pipeline, the Trans-Anatolian, aimed at transporting gas from Azerbaijan.

On the Hungarian side, Orban reiterated his country's need for imported gas, adding that while pipelines originating in Hungary towards Romania and Croatia were two-way on the Hungarian side, the same was not true in reverse.

"So Hungary is in a bind," he said. It really needs to work with Turkey now that the Russians have decided on Turkey as their pipeline destination, he added.

Orban said he and Davotoglu were against any further rise in tensions in Eurasia. Instead of asking "East or West," we need to focus on "East and West," he said, calling for cooperation in which both Europe and Asia had a place amidst mutual advantage.

As far as Turkey is concerned, Hungary's import-export bank, Eximbank is opening a branch in Istanbul and Hungarian exports to Turkey last year amounted to two billion dollars. The goal is five billion, Orban added.

Orban also cited Hungarian-Turkish business cooperation on third markets, noting that they were already working together on oil extraction projects in Russia and the Black Sea. Endite