WASHINGTON DC: US President Donald Trump on Friday said he is considering granting Hungary an exemption from sanctions on Russian oil to help the landlocked European nation secure energy supplies, Fox News reported.
Speaking at a joint meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Trump said the US is "looking at" Orban's request for an exemption from the Russian oil sanctions imposed last month.
"We're looking at it because it's very difficult for him to get the oil and gas from other areas," Trump told reporters during the bilateral lunch with the Hungarian Prime Minister. "They don't have the advantage of having seas. It's a great country. It's a big country. But they don't have a sea, they don't have the ports. And so they have a difficult problem."
Vice President, JD Vance, State Secretary Marco Rubio and US Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, also attended the bilateral lunch alongside POTUS.
Trump's remarks come weeks after his administration imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia's state-run oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil in October, after Moscow pulled out of talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, as per Fox News.
"Every time I speak to Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don't go anywhere," Trump had said at the time, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. "I just felt it was time. We've waited a long time."
The sanctions, which were among the harshest measures taken by Trump since returning to office, aimed to pressure Moscow into concessions over its ongoing invasion of Ukraine. (ANI)
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