Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szíjjartó opened the Hungarian Export Promotion Agencyʼs (HEPA) new office in Moscow on Friday.

The Hungarian governmentʼs job is to follow the example of western European countries and aid the success of Hungarian businesses on the Russian market, Szijjártó said.

He noted that last year of the G7 countries, Germany increased its trade turnover with Russia by 56pc, France by 40pc and Italy by 37pc. Trade turnover between Germany and Russia exceeded USD 60 billion in 2018, he added.

By contrast, while Hungarian-Russian trade turnover came to USD 10 bln in 2014 before Russia came under economic sanctions, trade turnover was just USD 6.4 bln last year, Szijjártó said. This was the result of a 17pc increase in trade from 2017 to 2018, he added.