BUDAPEST, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto Tuesday stressed the importance of the signing of a letter of intent for creating a Hungary-Croatia two-way connection for natural gas.
He said from the point of view of energy safety, it is of the most importance that Hungary be able to purchase natural gas from the South.
According to the minister, in Central and Eastern Europe, the safety of energy was still an extremely critical question, and it was in the best interest of the countries of CEE to establish an energy corridor linking the North with the South.
"For the time being, our southern infrastructure is incomplete: while we can send gas to Romania and Croatia, we cannot buy natural gas from the South," he explained.
The letter of intent specifies a roadmap, according to which, Croatia is going to expand its natural gas conduit in order to make it suitable for a two-way transportation.
"According to these plans, Hungary will be able to purchase natural gas from Croatia as early as the first quarter of 2019," Szijjarto added.
Before the press conference of Szijjarto, the letter of intent was signed by Andras Aradszi, State Secretary of the Hungarian Ministry for National Economy, and by Mario Siljeg, State Secretary at the Croatian Ministry of Environment and Energy.
