Donald Trump says ‘very good chance’ he will meet Vladimir Putin in Budapest

‘There’s always a chance’

But when Orban arrived at the White House, Trump briefly answered a reporter’s question about revisiting the idea. “There’s always a chance,” Trump said. “Very good chance.”

“We’re talking, but we’ll report on that later,” Trump said, without providing further details.

Hungarian purchase of Russian oil

As he met Orban, Trump was asked about Hungary buying oil from Russia. He didn’t answer directly but pointed to Orban and said he’s a “great leader.”

Later, Trump said he is considering a US sanctions exemption for Hungary over the purchase of Russian oil.

“We’re looking at it,” he said during a meeting with Orbán.

The Hungarian PM has been seeking to avoid US sanctions, arguing that it would be too hard to import energy from other sources because his country is landlocked. Trump appeared to have agreed with Orban.

“It’s a big country, but they don’t have sea, they don’t have the ports. And so they have a difficult problem,” Trump said.

The US President further pointed out that many other European countries that continue to purchase Russian oil don’t face those same problems.

“They don’t have those problems, and they buy a lot of oil and gas from Russia. And as they know, I’m very disturbed by that,” he said.

Last month, Trump imposed sanctions on Russian state-affiliated energy giants Lukoil and Rosneft. Apart from Hungary, India and China were also affected by the US sanctions.