BELGRADE, Serbia

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Friday that Budapest wants to strengthen economic ties with Moscow, which is under Western sanctions due to its war on Ukraine.

"Besides the fact that we don't like the sanctions regime, although there are European rules that we have to follow, we are very open about our desire to improve economic relations between Russia and Hungary in all areas that are not affected by sanctions," Szijjarto told Russia's state news agency TASS on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Szijjarto recalled that Budapest last week hosted the meeting of the Hungarian-Russian Committee for Economic Cooperation.

"We also held a business forum in which 173 entrepreneurs from both sides participated. For me, it shows that there is not only a political desire to improve economic relations but also business," he added.

He said the EU's restrictive measures against Russia have not helped to achieve the intended goal of bringing the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine closer, and have caused more damage to the economies of European countries than to Russia.