Hungary calls on EU to hold talks on access to Azerbaijani, Central Asian gas

EU should take steps to build infrastructure to provide access to gas in Azerbaijan, the Caucasus and Central Asia, and to negotiate relevant deals, Péter Szijjártó, the Hungarian minister of foreign affairs and trade, told a conference in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Report informs, citing foreign media.

An upgrade of the Trans-Anatolian, and Trans-Adriatic pipelines is necessary, while the Southern gas corridor should be linked to central Europe through the Western Balkans, Szijjártó said.

The government also supports projects to import Azerbaijan’s green power, produced by wind farms, through a cable under the sea, he added.

TurkStream supplies 50-60% of Hungary’s gas supply, Szijjártó said, adding that it had facilitated building reserves to cover 42% of the country’s annual consumption. He warned, however, that new sources had to be identified, and pointed to Central Asia, which has 10.5% of the world’s gas deposits.