Rubio pledges US review of Hungary penalties, Szijjarto says

Zoltan Simon, Bloomberg News on Jan 26, 2025

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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has pledged to review penalties the Biden administration imposed on Hungary, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said after holding talks with his U.S. counterpart.

“My new foreign minister colleague assured me that we will rebuild Hungarian-American political relations and for him this includes a review by the new administration of the earlier steps taken out of revenge,” Szijjarto said in a Facebook post on Sunday.

The Biden administration had severed a bilateral tax treaty with Hungary and tightened entry rules for Hungarians as part of steps to push Prime Minister Viktor Orban to loosen his ties with Russia and China and reverse rule of law erosion at home. Earlier this month, the U.S. also imposed sanctions on Orban’s most powerful minister for alleged corruption.

Szijjarto said this week that Hungary would consult the Trump administration before deciding whether to agree to renew European Union sanctions against Russia, which were imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Hungarian chief diplomat made no mention of Russian sanctions in his post. E.U. foreign ministers will meet Monday to decide on renewing the existing penalties against Russia, which requires the unanimous backing of the bloc’s 27 member states.

As recently as Friday, Orban had threatened to withhold his support unless Ukraine agreed to resume gas transit to Europe and until Hungary was given guarantees that oil and gas pipeline running through its eastern neighbor won’t be attacked.