The News
China’s Xi Jinping is in Europe and a stop in Hungary is planned for later this week. On the agenda: China’s growing role in Hungary’s nuclear energy development, Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó said.
Szijjártó said that President Xi is expected to sign 16 agreements with the Hungarian government, including one denoting “cooperation covering the entire portfolio of nuclear energy.” That could mean China is taking a role in Hungary’s Paks II nuclear power plant — a project spearheaded by Russia’s Rosatom nuclear energy contractor — that has been delayed and run over budget since its 2014 inception, caught in the chaos from Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to Hungary’s financial newspaper Portfolio.
Budapest has been a thorn in the EU’s side by continuing to import Russian energy despite sanctions. However, bringing China in could signal that Hungary is looking for alternative partners as costs rise. France and the US are also angling to help meet eastern Europe’s energy needs, setting up a new geopolitical flashpoint between East and West.
SIGNALS
Budapest may be moving away from Russia
Hungary’s Paks II power plant project got round Western sanctions on Russia, but the broader security climate in Europe has complicated Russia’s ability to get the job done, according to Portfolio. Last week, the Hungarian foreign minister confirmed that the main reactor components are still under construction in Russia and should be shipped to Hungary this summer. But Paks II’s CEO Gergely Jákli told Portfolio that Russia’s involvement is increasingly expensive and he is considering bringing on other investors’ to complete the project. “The review and modification of certain points of the construction contract is in progress,” Jákli said.
France duels with Russia for control, but it can’t outrun China
Nuclear energy is a key part of French President Emmanuel Macron’s “strategic autonomy” policy, which seeks to reshape the political order in Europe away from the influence of Washington and NATO, according to the Center for Eastern Studies think tank. France’s Framatome nuclear development company is a sub-contractor in Paks II, and France has previously voiced opposition to sanctions targeting Russia’s nuclear energy industry. Framatome’s role in Paks II has “significantly increased” as Russian involvement has become more complicated, CES wrote. But political red tape and economic issues mean France’s nuclear industry relies heavily on Chinese cooperation and investment in projects abroad, including in the UK.
Next door, Bulgaria courts Washington for nuclear fuel
Hungary and other European countries, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Finland, and Bulgaria, increasingly relied on Russian nuclear fuel imports to make up for the lack of Russian gas and oil as a result of the war. These imports remain a significant revenue source for Moscow, bringing in more than $739 million last year, according to the Bellona think tank. The US wants to stem the flow: American firms are reopening uranium mines to export, Politico reported. Those efforts appear to be paying off in Bulgaria. Last week, it announced that a Pennsylvania-based company, Westinghouse, would become their main supplier of fuel rods. Westinghouse is also constructing two new reactors there. It’s a “symbolic step” for Bulgaria, a key Moscow ally, Politico wrote.