Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto has been in Moscow to discuss the expansion of the Paks nuclear power station with Alexei Likhachev, head of Rosatom, the Russian state-owned nuclear energy corporation in charge of the works.

Mr Szijjarto said on his Facebook page that “preparatory work is progressing well” with Russia to supply various plans and permissions requests to the Hungarian authorities “in the coming period”. He said 519 licences had already been granted, including an environmental permit.

Mr Szijjarto said he would also discuss with Mr Likhachev ways to make training capacity developed in Hungary part of an international network. He said this would allow Hungary to provide specialists for nuclear projects in any country.