Hungarian PM says country interested in receiving electricity from Azerbaijan through Georgia, Romania

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán on Thursday said his country was interested in receiving electricity from Azerbaijan through Georgia and Romania, following a meeting with Georgian prime minister Irakli Garibashvili in Budapest.

Orbán noted an infrastructure of new, high-capacity transmission lines would be used for the purpose, adding if the energy was delivered “directly to us next year” the country would “no longer have to purchase natural gas”.

• Azerbaijan planning increased energy exports via pipelines running through Georgia

I was very happy that [the Georgian] prime minister supports this initiative", he noted.

On his part, Garibashvili said his government was a “supporter of these projects and one of the important participants".

Today we also signed the declaration of strategic partnership. I believe that the existing close cooperation and good friendship between us will continue and will add an additional impetus to Georgian-Hungarian relations", Garibashvili said.

Orbán also announced his visit to Georgia next year, saying the government heads would hold a “joint intergovernmental meeting”, to be preceded by discussions between leading officials of sectoral ministries.