Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (C) speaks as US Vice President JD Vance (L) and President Donald Trump (R) look on during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC on November 7, 2025. (Photo by Saul Loeb / AFP)
Washington: US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday.
Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow's two largest oil companies in October after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine.
But while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow's war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump's return to power to push for special treatment.
As they heaped praise on each other, Trump said he was considering an exemption because landlocked Hungary had to rely on pipelines that made it dependent on Russian oil and gas.
“As you know they don't have the advantage of having sea,” Trump told reporters.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said after the meeting that Washington had granted a "full and unlimited exemption from sanctions on oil and gas."
But a White House official told AFP that Hungary's exemption was only for one year.
Hungary had meanwhile committed to purchasing US liquefied natural gas worth around $600 million, the official said.
