Croatia and Hungary can and should buy natural gas together in order to try to lower its price, Hungarian Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto said after talks with Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman in Budapest on Friday, revealing also that talks on Hungary's share in a liquefied natural gas terminal on the northern Adriatic island of Krk would begin in January.

We submitted our proposal to our Croatian partners on November 25 and in January talks will be held by expert groups, Szijjarto said about the offer for the LNG terminal at a news conference held after talks with Grlic Radman, who is on a two-day visit to Hungary.

Earlier this year the Hungarian authorities said they wanted a 25% share in the Krk terminal, which has been under construction.

Szijjarto stressed that by integrating their markets the two countries could lower gas prices due to larger quantities of gas bought.

The Hungarian minister said this was confirmed to him in Qatar and that that Middle Eastern country was willing to supply natural gas as of 2021 already.

Szijjarto also said that the issue of gas purchases and the Krk LNG terminal was separate from the issue of the INA buyout.

Croatia and Hungary in June established a joint working group for cooperation in the field of energy, notably LNG.

Budapest has said that it considers diversification of supply routes, which currently lead only to Russia, as a crucial political and economic issue.