Gary Palmer Republican MP and Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó in Washington
One way to solve the problems caused by Brussels is nuclear energy cooperation with the United States, because the sooner Hungary’s nuclear capacity can be expanded, the more the negative effects of the REPowerEU regulation can be mitigated, said Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, on Tuesday in Washington.
The minister reported that cooperation between the two countries has become a widespread success story, thanks to the fact that since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January this year, the United States no longer treats Hungary as an enemy but as a friend.
With regard to energy cooperation, he emphasized that “what Europeans are unable or unwilling to understand, America understood immediately,” namely that geographical factors really matter when it comes to energy supply, so a landlocked country has much more limited options than others.
With RePowerEU, our safe energy supply is being killed. They call it diversification, but in reality, it cuts one of our vital oil routes. @EU_Commission completely ignores that this regulation destroys the energy security of EU Member States. Energy should not be about politics! pic.twitter.com/dI7JC1rKXZ
— Péter Szijjártó (@FM_Szijjarto) October 20, 2025
“So yesterday, the European Union effectively killed the security of Hungary’s energy supply because they view energy supply as a political and ideological issue and have largely ignored the physical and geographical realities. Here in America, the thinking is different; here, the issue of energy cooperation is approached on the basis of common sense, since we are now significantly expanding Hungarian-American cooperation in the field of energy, and we will give it a very strong nuclear component,” he said.
He explained that this refers to small modular reactors (SMRs), a technology that will soon be available for providing cheap, stable, and environmentally friendly energy to industrial areas and cities.
Péter Szijjártó then recalled that Hungary recently signed an agreement with the United States, on the basis of which American SMR technology will be available for use in Hungary in the future.
He then emphasized that nuclear energy not only ensures security of supply but also guarantees long-term cost reductions.
“And I hope that within a few years, small modular nuclear power plants manufactured with American technology will contribute to ensuring that, in addition to households and families, companies and economic actors in Hungary will also be able to pay the lowest energy costs in Europe, which will be a very important guarantee of the future competitiveness of the Hungarian economy,” he said.
So, in the field of Hungarian-American nuclear cooperation, we are now opening a very important new chapter with technological cooperation on small nuclear power plants,”
he added.
The minister stated that the Hungarian government will work in the coming period to counteract the negative effects of the Brussels decisions, which amount to a “deep blow.”
Hungary will expand energy cooperation with the US, in particular in the use of nuclear energy, including the development and installation of small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs), Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced:https://t.co/jreYkclCKH pic.twitter.com/73PvueZq8h
— TASS (@tassagency_en) October 21, 2025
In the Minister’s view, there are political and legal means to do so, as the previous day’s decision was made “fraudulently,” disguised as trade policy and passed by a simple majority, when in fact it was a sanctioning measure, which would have required unanimity.
“Therefore, we will of course pursue the European court route, but there is no doubt that the more we can use nuclear energy, the less we will be dependent on natural gas imports, for example,” he confirmed.
He therefore considered it essential that the Paks expansion (Hungary’s nuclear power plant – editor’s note) proceed as quickly as possible and that small modular reactors be put into use in Hungary as soon as possible. “We currently believe that American technology is the most advanced in this regard, thus American technology has the best chance of being used in small modular nuclear power plants in the near future. We have already signed an agreement on this. Today, we are clarifying the conditions for moving forward,” he summarized.
Via MTI; Featured image: MTI/KKM
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