The first round of talks was held in December 2007 in Budapest.
Russian-Hungarian trade in 2008 reached a record high of some $13 billion, making Russia Hungary's second most important trade partner after Germany.
Hydrocarbons dominate Russia's exports to Hungary. Independent crude producer LUKoil alone supplies about 5 million metric tons annually to Hungary and runs over 70 filling stations in the country.
Hungary exports machinery, equipment, pharmaceuticals, chemical products and foodstuffs to Russia.
Moscow and Budapest signed in 2008 an agreement on the construction of the Hungarian leg of the South Stream gas pipeline, with an annual capacity of 10 billion cubic meters.
The first deliveries along the South Stream pipeline are scheduled to start in 2013. The project, expected to annually pump 31 billion cubic meters of Central Asian and Russian gas to the Balkans and on to other European countries, also involves Bulgaria, Serbia, Italy and Greece.
