Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, speaking at an international conference in Eurasian security in Minsk, the capital of Belarus on Thursday said it is now unclear how the European Union can remain competitive in the world after it has severed its ties with Russia.

For decades, the Eastern and Western economies were exceptionally economically dependent, however now that the EU had cut ties with Moscow, the price of electricity in Europe has skyrocketed to three times the cost of electricity in China.

Szijjarto said, that, “the success of Western countries is almost impossible to imagine without cooperation with Eastern countries. And the opposite is also true.” 

He also noted that the car industry, which he said was the “backbone of the European economy,” will be unable to enter a “new age” of electric vehicle production unless resource supplies can be made cheaper.

The minister went on, “And this combination has now fallen apart, unfortunately. As a result, people in Europe now pay four times more for gas. We pay three times more for electricity than people in China. It is difficult to understand how the European economy can be competitive in such conditions.”

He claimed that over the past eighteen months, the issue of energy security for the bloc had become “hostage to political debate,” even though energy should be unrelated to politics given it is a matter of “physical reality.”

Szijjarto said, “It is the duty and responsibility of the Hungarian government to guarantee safe energy supplies in the country. And since it is physically impossible without Russian resources, we will continue to cooperate in reasonable relations with Russia.”

The minister emphasized the importance of resuming “civilized dialog” between the East and the West, adding that Hungary would be uniquely positioned to be a mediator between the two sides.