Visiting Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said Wednesday that the Western sanctions policy has failed, Paralel.Az reports citing the BelTA news agency.

"The sanctions policy has failed, and this is not a political statement. There is no point in making it when it comes to factual information," Szijjarto told reporters following a meeting of the intergovernmental Belarusian-Hungarian commission on economic cooperation, according to the report.

Szijjarto said the failure of Western sanctions was that "the European Union has lost a lot due to the sanctions policy."

The minister noted that he opposed "measures that harm national interests," and that is why Hungary still buys Russian oil.

He also warned that by cutting off communication channels between the EU and Belarus, the two sides would lose tools for achieving peace.

On the same day, a business forum between Hungary and Belarus was held in Minsk, attracting more than 100 companies from the two countries.