Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó will be in Belgrade on Wednesday to discuss details on how Hungary will assist Serbia after crude oil deliveries from Croatia were halted.
Serbia’s President, Aleksandar Vučić, said on Tuesday that the oil refinery of the Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS), which is Russian-owned, will shut down for four days if the United States does not lift sanctions against the company—putting fuel supplies at risk ahead of winter.
The United States, which has implemented a series of measures against entities linked to Russia due to the war in Ukraine, imposed sanctions on the refinery last month, prompting neighboring Croatia to suspend the delivery of crude oil.
“Serbia is in a difficult situation. We Hungarians will, of course, help Serbia, the Serbian people, and the Serbian economy, and today in Belgrade we will discuss the details of this assistance,” Szijjártó said in a video posted on Facebook on November 26.
In October, Szijjártó stated that the Hungarian oil company MOL would increase supplies to Serbia, but he provided no details on the quantities or transport routes.
Meanwhile, an oil pipeline connecting Hungary and Serbia is in the planning stage and could begin meeting all of Serbia’s crude oil needs by 2028, Szijjártó said in April.
The pipeline is expected to have a capacity to transport 4 to 5 million tons of Russian oil to Serbia through Hungary each year, the foreign minister said at the time.
Relations between Serbia and Hungary have strengthened in recent years, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić maintain close ties with Russia.
