The White House said Friday that it has agreed to exempt Hungary from U.S. sanctions on buying Russian oil for one year following President Donald Trump’s meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
It’s a big win for the conservative Hungarian leader, whose top priority in coming to Washington was to seek relief from sanctions that could cripple his country given its reliance on Russian energy sources.
The White House said in an email only that the exemption was “for one year,” confirming an announcement that members of Orbán’s administration had already been trumpeting around Washington. “A major outcome” of Friday’s meeting between the two leaders, Hungary’s foreign minister posted on X, is that the U.S. “had granted Hungary a full and unlimited exemption from sanctions on oil and gas.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for further details of the deal. Earlier in the day, Trump had only said he was considering giving Hungary a reprieve. “Sure, we’re looking at it, because it’s very difficult for [Hungary] to get the oil and gas from other areas,” he told reporters sitting alongside Orbán. “They don’t have the advantage of having sea. … They don’t have the ports. They have a difficult problem.”
