Rubio and Hungary’s Orbán sign energy and anti-left-wing-violence memoranda in Washington

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orbán signed two memoranda of understanding at the State Department in Washington on 29 October. One covers energy infrastructure and regional energy security under the U.S. Trump Peace Pipelines framework. The other covers law enforcement cooperation and information exchange against what both ministers described as violent left-wing groups.

The State Department’s readout of the meeting said the two ministers discussed energy diversification, law enforcement and cybersecurity cooperation, and multilateral priorities. It said the memoranda codify Hungary’s commitment to energy diversification under the framework and a bilateral commitment to combatting far-left terrorism.

The energy memorandum

Rubio presented the energy document as a further step after Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced the initiative at the Three Seas Initiative Summit. In his words, it is an infrastructure initiative meant to meet Central Europe’s energy needs with U.S. energy, offering “a little bit more energy independence, or at least energy diversification”, as the State Department transcript records him saying. He called the memorandum a testament to the growing strength of U.S.-Hungary economic cooperation.

Orbán said the agreement concerns energy security and energy infrastructure in south-east and central-eastern Europe, in oil and gas, and is meant to create options for diversification and alternative sources of supply. She said her government’s goal is a predictable, stable and affordable energy supply for consumers, industry and the economy, and that Hungary wants to become an important player in regional energy supply. She also stressed that the memoranda are milestones in a process and that she wanted to leave Washington with concrete next steps.

The law enforcement memorandum

Rubio said the second document responds to a resurgence of far-left terrorism, citing attacks on police, critical infrastructure and historical landmarks, and said many such movements operate through international networks. The memorandum is to increase cooperation and information sharing so that cross-border networks can be tracked and brought to justice.

Orbán said that under existing law enforcement cooperation the two countries will enhance information sharing to prevent, detect and prosecute violence by left-wing groups, naming “Antifa Ost” as an example, in both the United States and Hungary. She also said she hoped to deepen ties in security, nuclear cooperation, defence and economic cooperation. Both characterisations are those of the two governments; the transcript does not give details of specific cases or of what the information exchange will cover.

Context

Orbán said in her remarks that the signing came before her first official meeting with Rubio. Neither the readout nor the remarks give a value, a timetable or named projects for the energy memorandum. Geopolitiki recently reported on Hungary’s marking of the 1956 uprising: Hungary marks 1956 uprising at 70 as only Costa and von der Leyen join Magyar from the EU leadership.

The State Department published both the remarks and the readout on 29 October. Further details of the action plans Orbán mentioned have not been published.