Rubio promises Szijjártó that "vindictive measures will be reviewed"

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó spoke on the phone with newly appointed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday, he said in a Facebook video. According to Szijjártó, he and Rubio "reaffirmed our mutual commitment to restore and rebuild the political relations between the United States and Hungary".

In the video, Szijjártó says: "We reaffirmed our mutual commitment to peace, and my counterpart assured me that it is a very important goal of President Donald Trump to end the war that has been going on next door to us for three years. I assured Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Hungary will continue to enthusiastically, firmly and vocally support all initiatives that can bring us closer to an end to the war and to peace. Hungary has been living under very serious security threats over the past three years, and we have suffered very serious economic damage".

According to the Hungarian Foreign Minister, during the conversation, "we spoke candidly about the fact that the previous administration saw us as enemies, and therefore introduced a number of measures against us out of revenge (...) And my American counterpart assured me that when he says that we will rebuild the Hungarian-American political relations, he also means that the new US administration will review the past measures introduced out of revenge."

The latter is probably a reference to the sanctions against Antal Rogán, one of the Hungarian government's most powerful ministers. The Hungarian minister was put on the sanctions list by the US Department of Treasury on the last day of Joe Biden's presidency. After the move, many speculated whether the new US administration would take him off the list, and if so, when.