Hungary's FM to discuss peace, energy in Moscow

Budapest, Oct 12 Peter Szijjarto, Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has said here that he will travel to Moscow on Thursday to deliver a strong message of peace and to discuss ways to ensure Hungary's energy supplies.

He will be there to participate in the event "Russian Energy Week", Xinhua news agency reported.

"It is clear that the escalation in Ukraine is moving in an extremely dangerous direction. Now we are really in the last moment to reverse the events," he said at a press conference held with Slovenia's minister of economic development and technology Matjaz Han.

"Instead of escalation efforts and war rhetoric, I think it would be time for us in Europe to switch to focusing all our efforts on creating peace," he said.

He said he will meet with representatives of Russian energy giant Gazprom, state nuclear company Rosatom and government officials in charge of Russia's energy policy for talks on ways to prevent an energy shortage in Hungary this winter.

Szijjarto is the only European Union (EU) minister to attend the event in Moscow.

"Those who criticize me for this (participating in "Russian Energy Week") do not want peace, they are not interested in whether the Hungarian people will have energy supply or not," he said.

Although Hungary's government voted together with other EU members in favor of Western sanctions against Russia, it is fervently opposed to extending the sanctions to Russia's energy sector.