Washington, 8 November 2025 (dpa/MIA) - President Donald Trump signalled openness to a possible exemption for Hungary from US sanctions on Russian energy imports during a meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the White House on Friday.

Orbán asked Washington to allow Hungary to continue importing oil and gas from Russia, arguing that the landlocked EU country had no short-term alternatives.

"We are looking at it because it is very difficult for him to get the oil and gas from other areas. As you know, they don’t have the advantage of having the sea," Trump said in response to a reporter's question.

"They don't have the ports," he continued.

The United States imposed fresh sanctions on Russian energy companies in October, which could trigger secondary penalties for buyers.

Pressure grew on Thursday, when a bipartisan group of US senators introduced a resolution urging Hungary to reduce its dependence on Russian energy and align with the European Union’s plan to end such imports by 2027.

Hungary receives most of its oil through the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline via Ukraine.

While a secondary route through Croatia can supply crude from non-Russian sources, Orbán argues it is only suitable as a backup.

Orbán, who is on good terms with Russian President Vladimir Putin, has called energy security a matter of "national survival," warning of severe consequences for businesses and households if Russian oil supplies were suddenly cut off.

Trump, striking a conciliatory tone, said "many" other European nations — which he did not name — were still buying Russian energy in significant volumes, while Hungary was in a "different position" due to its geography.

Orbán travelled to Washington with a large delegation of ministers, business leaders and political allies.

Many EU partners have criticized Hungary’s stance as weakening the bloc’s united front against Moscow and accuse Budapest of failing to seek alternative energy sources.

For Orbán, who has repeatedly threatened to veto EU sanctions packages, Trump’s show of support carries symbolic weight ahead of Hungary’s parliamentary elections expected in 2026.

Trump still favours meeting Putin in Budapest

Trump said he still favours Budapest as the site of a potential meeting with Putin on ending the war in Ukraine, though both Washington and the Kremlin have made clear that no talks are imminent.

"If we have it, I'd like to do it in Budapest," Trump told reporters during the meeting with Orbán, without offering a reason for choosing the Hungarian capital.

The US leader first suggested talks in mid-October, proposing a summit in Budapest within two weeks. But subsequent US contacts with Moscow indicated that Russia was unwilling to soften its maximalist demands toward Ukraine, prompting Trump to postpone the talks indefinitely.

Russia has also downplayed the likelihood of new Putin-Trump talks.

There is "no need" for a hasty meeting at this time, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday, the state-run TASS news agency reported. "What is needed now is very careful work on the details of a settlement," he said.

Trump last met Putin in Alaska in August, an encounter that produced no concrete results.

Photo: EPA