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Croatia caught off guard by statements of Hungarian Foreign Minister

by AI | 05.Aug 2024 | Europe in brief AI

Croatia sharply responded to accusations by the Hungarian foreign minister that it is an unreliable country for oil transport.

In the picture, Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman. photo HINA/ Damir SENČAR/ ds

ZAGREB – Croatia is stunned by the “politically deeply offensive” statement by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto that it is an “unreliable transit country” and considers it not a “friendly gesture,” Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said on Friday.

Szijjarto said earlier on Friday that “Croatia is simply not a reliable transit country” because, he claims, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, it has increased the transit fee for oil five times more than the average market fee, prevented MOL from contracting for long-term delivery, and has not carried out the necessary investments to increase capacity.

“We are unpleasantly surprised by Szijjarto‘s statement,” Grlić Radman told Hina. “It’s a politically deeply offensive statement that we really did not expect from the representative of a country whose ill-intentioned moves we have long responded to with utmost restraint and moderation, guided above all by the awareness that we are neighboring and friendly countries,” he added.

The head of Croatian diplomacy hopes that Budapest will quickly realize that “this approach and stance do not benefit anyone, and least of all the development of our bilateral relations and solidarity as a fundamental principle of the EU.”

“Such a statement is made by a representative of a country whose reliability is sufficiently questioned by the mere fact that it faces scrutiny of its foreign policy engagement and actually ‘going it alone,’ at the very beginning of its presidency of the Council of the European Union,” Grlić Radman said.

This alludes to the calls by some European leaders for a symbolic boycott of events in Hungary, which, as of July 1, chairs the EU, due to Budapest’s deviation from European foreign policy.

Budapest and Bratislava last week approached the EC regarding Ukraine’s decision to halt the transit of crude oil necessary for the oil supply security of the two countries. (August 2, 2024)