ISTANBUL, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye and Hungary on Monday reaffirmed their energy partnership, with Ankara promising to guarantee the transit of Russian natural gas to Hungary.

Speaking after talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul, visiting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban described Türkiye's role in securing gas and oil deliveries as "very important and necessary," citing Hungary's limited alternative energy sources.

Hungary, which relies heavily on Russian energy, signed a 15-year agreement in 2021 to purchase 4.5 billion cubic meters of Russian gas annually, and boosted imports last year to around 7.5 billion cubic meters via the TurkStream pipeline.

"Russian gas only arrives via Türkiye. This year, 7.5 billion cubic meters have already been delivered. Next year, we want to meet the needs of the Hungarian economy in the same way," Orban said in a video message posted on his social media accounts. He added that the issue of Russian gas transit would be discussed again during next year's talks with Erdogan.

During the meeting, Erdogan and Orban also reviewed broader bilateral cooperation, saying the two countries were close to reaching their trade target of 6 billion U.S. dollars and were considering increasing it to 10 billion dollars. They further discussed expanding defense industry collaboration, with Erdogan noting that joint production projects were under evaluation. Enditem