(BSS/AFP) - Hungary`s Prime Minister Viktor Orban will meet his ally US President Donald Trump next week in Washington to discuss Budapest`s use of Russian energy, the Hungarian foreign minister said on Monday.

Last week the United States hit Russia`s two biggest oil producers -- Rosneft and Lukoil -- with sanctions, the first such measures targeting Moscow since Trump returned to office.

Hungary -- seen as Trump`s and the Kremlin`s closest ally in the European Union -- still depends heavily on Russian oil and gas despite Russia`s invasion of Ukraine.
Over the weekend, US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker told Fox News that the United States expects countries such as Hungary to "come up with and execute a plan" that "weans them off" Russian energy sources.

"There will be an opportunity in Washington in the second half of next week for the Prime Minister to discuss this issue personally with the US President," Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told a media briefing
alongside his Israeli counterpart.

According to Szijjarto, Hungary is currently analysing what the US sanctions
mean "legally and physically".

On Friday, Orban said that they were looking at ways to "circumvent" the
measures.

The nationalist premier visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida
three times last year, twice before Trump`s re-election.

Orban was set to host a planned US-Russia summit in Budapest on the Ukraine
war, but the meeting was cancelled by Trump before a date was set.

Last week, the EU also introduced new curbs on the Russian oil and gas sector
in the bloc`s 19th sanctions package since the Kremlin`s 2022 invasion.

Orban, who has repeatedly slammed EU sanctions against Russia, secured an
exemption on oil deliveries via pipelines for Hungary, claiming the
landlocked central European country of 9.5 million has no practical
alternatives for supply.