Eighteen Agreements Signed during Chinese Presidential Visit

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (R4) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (L5) during a plenary meeting at the Carmelite Monastery

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Hungary is of historic significance, and the summit between the two countries produced results that correspond to this, with the parties signing eighteen important agreements, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced in Budapest on Thursday.

The Minister described the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Budapest as a historic one, as the last time the Chinese President visited Hungary was 20 years ago, and this year, the two countries celebrate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. “The President and the Prime Minister had very successful negotiations today, resulting in the signing of eighteen agreements,” he said.

The Foreign Minister made the following announcements:

• The list of joint projects between the two countries has been expanded under China’s One Belt, One Road strategy to develop East-West connectivity. On this basis, preparations will begin for the construction of a railway ring bypassing Budapest as part of a joint Sino-Hungarian development. As the Minister noted, there is a great need for this because there is significant Chinese investment in the eastern half of Hungary, but the products produced here will be sold mainly in the western part of Europe.
• Preparations are also underway for a high-speed rail link to provide fast access from the airport to the center of Budapest. Hungary already offers direct connections to seven major Chinese cities with nineteen flights a week.

• Preparations are underway to develop an electric car charging network in Hungary, to ensure that electric cars can be charged as quickly as possible in as many parts of the country as possible.
• The construction of Europe’s most modern, largest, safest, and fastest border crossing point between Hungary and Serbia will start.
• Plans to jointly explore with Serbian and Chinese partners the possibility of building an oil pipeline between Hungary and Serbia as quickly as possible. This would contribute to the security of energy supply for both countries and for the whole region.

• The parties discussed the further expansion of cooperation between BYD and Hungary.
• The Foreign Minister stressed that agricultural exports play an important role in bilateral trade, especially given that Hungary has the largest number of Chinese export licenses in Central Europe. The range of products concerned will be further extended following yesterday’s agreement, for instance, cherries will be added to the list.

• Minister Szijjártó described his latest announcement as “bringing a new dimension to bilateral relations.” The two sides agreed to prepare a cooperation program for the whole nuclear industry. This will be done in order to ensure that the cheapest, safest, and most efficient way of producing electricity can be properly applied by both countries. In this context, the Minister noted that the demand for electricity will continue to grow steeply around the world in the coming years and that nuclear energy is the best way to meet this demand.

“This visit is therefore historic, and today’s result is worthy of this historic visit,” Péter Szijjártó concluded.

At a press conference held today, Minister for National Economy Márton Nagy made a new announcement: the leaders of China’s Huawei and the Budapest-based IT company 4iG signed a cooperation agreement. According to a joint statement issued on the spot by 4iG and Huawei, the agreement aims to develop a new joint cloud services platform for domestic companies and large Chinese and Far Eastern enterprises based in the region, in addition to the existing cloud services of the 4iG Group.

Via MTI, Featured image: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher