Viktor Orban is satisfied with the US intervention in Venezuela: “It is good news for Hungary”
Viktor Orban and Donald Trump during a meeting at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, March 8, 2024. Photo credit: ZOLTAN FISCHER / AFP / Profimedia
The US decision to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro should have a positive impact on the global energy market, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said, according to Reuters, adding that the United States and Venezuela will control half of global oil reserves.
In the largest US intervention in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of the state of Panama, special forces stormed Caracas and detained Nicolas Maduro and then brought him to New York to face drug-trafficking charges.
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President Donald Trump, an Orban ally who accepted Hungary's exemption from US sanctions on Russia's energy sector for 2026, has made it clear he wants access to Venezuela's oil reserves.
“What I think is important for Hungary from this perspective is that, together with Venezuela, the United States will be able to control, in my estimation, 40-50% of the world's oil reserves,” Orban said at the annual conference organized for the international press.
“This is a power capable of significantly influencing the price of energy on the world market (…) I consider it a solid possibility that as a result of bringing Venezuela under control, a more favorable energy situation will emerge for Hungary, and that is good news,” said the head of the Hungarian government.
Budapest has irritated many countries in the European Union and NATO by continuing to import Russian oil and gas. While insisting that this is necessary, Hungary has taken steps to diversify its import sources.
In December, the state company MVM signed a 5-year agreement with the American company Chevron for the supply of 2 billion cubic meters of liquefied gas.
