The deal was revealed after the U.S. president met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the White House.
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.”
The U.S. sanctions on Russian oil are designed to cut off the flow of money Russia earns from energy exports, a major source of funding for its war in Ukraine. Trump last month announced new sanctions targeting two of Russia’s largest oil companies — Rosneft and Lukoil — and many of their subsidiaries, after Russia failed to commit seriously to a peace process, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the time.
It came after months of pressure on the administration from Congress to impose tougher sanctions on Russia’s oil and energy sector and moves by other European countries to limit use of Russian oil and gas.
Orbán has been one the most outspoken European leaders against the sanctions. Hungary relies on Russian oil for 86 percent of its supply, a number that has grown since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Pipelines are not an ideological or political issue. It’s a physical reality … We will negotiate on that point. It’s vital,” Orbán told reporters in the briefing alongside Trump.
The Trump-Orbán meeting is the first time the president has invited the Hungarian leader to the White House in his second term. And Orbán came to Washington with sweeteners. He signed a memorandum to cooperate with the U.S. in the civil nuclear industry, including pledging the construction of 10 small modular reactors valued at $20 billion in Budapest with U.S. nuclear innovation. Hungary will also buy $114 million worth of nuclear fuel from U.S.-based Westinghouse, $600 million worth of U.S. liquified natural gas and $700 million worth of defense material.
Orbán has called the Washington visit the beginning of “phase two” of the country’s thawing of relations with the U.S. He has blamed the Biden administration for “politically motivated sanctions,” likely referring to the U.S. Treasury slapping sanctions on his top aide, Antal Rogan, with allegations of corruption.
Orbán described the U.S. and Hungary as the only “pro-peace” governments working to end the Russia-Ukraine war, and that other European nations are “misunderstanding” conflict when they argue Ukraine can win on the front line. Trump asked his counterpart whether he thinks Ukraine can win the war, to which Orbán responded, “Miracle[s] can happen.”
Like Russia, Orbán is a fierce opponent of Ukraine joining European alliances. He’s said he would veto Ukraine joining the European Union and decried the possibility of the war-torn country being a part of NATO.
Last month, Orbán was given the coveted status of potentially hosting a peace summit in Budapest with Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss Ukraine, before the plan quickly disintegrated.
But the summit with Putin still seemed to be on Trump’s mind during Friday’s meeting. “If we have it, I’d like to do it in Budapest,” the president said.
The warm relationship — and Trump’s offer to host the summit in Hungary — is in part due to Orbán’s unrelenting support for the president. He was an ally when Trump was out of power and visited him at Mar-a-Lago, and is leading a conservative, anti-immigration and natalist government that MAGA world wants to emulate.