{"id":37793,"date":"2025-11-07T05:05:56","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T05:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=37793"},"modified":"2025-11-07T05:05:56","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T05:05:56","slug":"orban-to-seek-approval-from-trump-to-continue-importing-russian-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=37793","title":{"rendered":"Orb\u00e1n to seek approval from Trump to continue importing Russian oil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\">Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington, business and the world<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=a5d78c25-1bc5-4932-b4dd-c82cd1f8a7d5&amp;newsletter-id=65b8fec772badb00166eafc6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Viktor Orb\u00e1n is set to meet Donald Trump at the White House on Friday as the Hungarian premier seeks an exemption from US sanctions that would allow his country to continue importing Russian oil.<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration last month turned up the pressure on Moscow to end its war in Ukraine by adding Russia\u2019s oil majors Lukoil and Rosneft to its sanctions list. The Russian companies have significant operations in Hungary, which has resisted Europe\u2019s push to sever its energy links to Russia after the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. <\/p>\n<p>Orb\u00e1n, who is close to both Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, has warned that his country faced a severe economic shock if deprived of Russian oil. The premier faces elections in April, and his party is lagging behind an upstart rival who poses the first major challenge to Orb\u00e1n\u2019s 15-year rule.<\/p>\n<p>EU officials believe Orb\u00e1n perceives the fuel issue as a significant threat to his re-election. \u201cThey are obsessed with it,\u201d a senior EU official said. <\/p>\n<p>When asked last week whether <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/hungary\" data-trackable=\"link\">Hungary<\/a> should be exempt from sanctions, Trump said: \u201cHe has asked for an exemption, he\u2019s a friend of mine, Viktor [but] we haven\u2019t granted one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The US president last month had appeared sympathetic to the Hungarian leader\u2019s claim that the landlocked country had no alternatives to Russian oil.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI spoke with the very great leader of Hungary and\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009it\u2019s very hard for them to get oil,\u201d Trump said at the time. <\/p>\n<p>When asked whether he will apply the same pressure as he did on India, which diverted from Russian oil after the US imposed 50 per cent tariffs on Indian imports, Trump explained that \u201cHungary is sort of stuck because they have one pipeline that\u2019s been there for years and years and years. And they\u2019re inland, they don\u2019t have sea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>US sanctions against Lukoil and Rosneft are due to kick in on November 21 and threaten to sever the country\u2019s oil imports via the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline.<\/p>\n<p>Orb\u00e1n said in a social media post earlier this week that he wanted to \u201copen a new chapter in Hungarian-American relations\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. that embraces energy co-operation\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>The Hungarian premier will be accompanied by Zsolt Hern\u00e1di, the chief executive of Hungary\u2019s oil group MOL, which operates refineries in the region and is one of the few remaining importers of Russian oil.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEnergy supply security is a particular challenge for Europe, and this will be one of the key aspects of the meeting\u201d with Trump, Hungarian foreign minister P\u00e9ter Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3 said. \u201cWe will create a large energy co-operation package that will help guarantee Hungary\u2019s long term energy security.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the claims that Hungary has no other alternatives to Druzhba, there is a Croatian-owned pipeline that could supply Hungary and neighbouring countries with seaborne crude. <\/p>\n<p>But MOL has so far resisted the switch, citing higher costs and technical issues with the Croatian pipeline.<\/p>\n<p>Janaf, the pipeline\u2019s operator majority owned by the Croatian government, has dismissed those concerns. <\/p>\n<p><em>Additional reporting by Alice Hancock in Brussels<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/a5d78c25-1bc5-4932-b4dd-c82cd1f8a7d5\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":37794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}