Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto visited Belarus on Monday, saying the purpose of the visit was to “keep communication channels open,” Reuters reported.

His visit to Minsk came as a group of 35 countries called for athletes from Russia and Belarus to be barred from next year’s Olympics.

In a post on his Facebook page, Peter Szijarto said that during the negotiations in Belarus, he will represent Hungary’s position in efforts to achieve peace in Ukraine.

“Obviously, many will attack me for this visit, but our position is clear: the channels of communication must be open,” he said in a post where he published several photos from the visit.

“If I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have been able to send a message asking for peace,” he added.

The countries of the Baltic States, Northern Europe and Poland most actively called on international sports forums to ban athletes from Russia and Belarus from participating in the Olympic Games, as the war in Ukraine continues and there is no prospect of its end.

Last month, the European Union announced that it was preparing a new package of sanctions against Belarus over the support of the Alexander Lukashenko regime for the Russian invasion.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has repeatedly condemned the EU sanctions against Russia and called for their cancellation. Late last month, he sparked a new diplomatic spat with Kyiv after declaring Ukraine a “no man’s land” and comparing it to Afghanistan.

Viktor Orbán, who has been in power since 2010, previously said that Hungary is “trying to save what can be saved from economic cooperation with Russia.”

Hungary is strengthening ties with Russia in the energy sector

Peter Sijarto’s visit to Minsk followed his official visit to Russia on November 22, where he took part in a meeting of the nuclear industry called Atomexpo.

His visit to Russia came after Hungary’s nuclear regulator in August granted a license to build two new reactors at the Paks nuclear power plant, to be built by Russia’s Rosatom under an agreement signed in 2014 between Budapest and Moscow.

At the end of January, Viktor Orbán personally stated that Hungary would exercise its right of veto in the event of any EU sanctions against Russia that would affect nuclear energy.

Hungary has also expanded cooperation with Russia in importing natural gas, and in October Peter Szijjarto announced from Moscow that Budapest had agreed with Russian giant Gazprom on a new increase in gas supplies via the Turkish Stream pipeline and Serbia.

He stated this during the “Russian Energy Week” event he attended in the Russian capital.

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