BUDAPEST, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- Hungary has secured exemptions from crude oil and nuclear energy sanctions at an EU Heads of Missions meeting in Brussels, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said on Facebook.
"As a result of difficult negotiations, a price cap on crude oil will not be applied to pipeline deliveries or to emergency replacement seaborne deliveries," the minister said Tuesday.
Szijjarto said the Hungarian exemption also applies to constructing a new nuclear power plant in Paks, a central Hungarian city. Russian nuclear giant Rosatom is to build the plant. Szijjarto added that institutes important to cooperation in nuclear energy research and development are also exempted.
"As we have already said many times before, the Hungarian government will not support any sanctions that cause harm to Hungary or the Hungarian people," he stressed, following the meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the EU.
Late Tuesday night, EU ambassadors reached a preliminary agreement on the 8th round of sanctions against Russia, including a price cap on Russian oil sales.
Hungary, however, is highly dependent on Russian oil and gas and has always been opposed to energy sanctions, calling them a "red line." ■
