Viktor Orbán Stresses Cooperation Instead of Isolation during Official Visit to China

MTI-Hungary Today 2023.10.16.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (L) and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (R)

Hungary has high hopes for cooperation with China, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Monday in Beijing, during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

He remarked that this will be the 75th anniversary of the establishment of relations between the two countries. He noted that they had established fruitful cooperation and personal friendship with previous prime ministers, adding that political friendship also has a deeper, cultural basis.

It is no coincidence that Hungary was the first country in the Soviet bloc to recognize China, and the only Central European state to have consistently upheld the “one China” principle from the very beginning,

the prime minister stressed.

Viktor Orbán also pointed out that Chinese President Xi Jinping had received him for the first time in 2009, when he was still vice-president and he was leading the opposition. This will be their seventh meeting, which “also shows the friendship between the two peoples.”

“I will do my utmost to pursue a foreign policy towards China worthy of our predecessors,” Orbán emphasized. Li Keqiang said that the two countries are bound together by a close friendship that has also helped bilateral relations to develop at the highest level. He added that Hungarian-Chinese relations had reached their best period so far, and a new kind of international relationship had been established.

After the meeting, the prime ministers signed a number of intergovernmental agreements in the presence of the two countries, including the

One Belt One Road Initiative, the education cooperation program, the industrial and investment cooperation program, as well as agreements on economic and technological development, the digital economy, and climate protection.

Fact

China’s One Belt One Road Initiative (OBOR) focuses on improving connectivity and cooperation between several countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe. Announced in 2013, with the aim of restoring the ancient Silk Road linking Asia and Europe, the project’s scope has expanded over the years to include new areas and development initiatives. The project now covers some 78 countries.

Prime Minister Orbán will attend the third summit of the One Belt One Road Forum on Tuesday and Wednesday. He spoke at the previous two summits, in 2017, and 2019.

Photo via MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Fischer Zoltán

China is Hungary’s ninth largest trading partner and is again this year Hungary’s largest foreign direct investor.

Fact

Chinese investments have been playing a major role in Hungary’s economic safety. By the end of last year, Hungary had attracted the most Chinese investment in the Eastern European region. Cooperation between the two countries is ongoing, with many of the world’s largest electric battery manufacturers such as China’s Eve Power, BYD, and CATL already present.

China and the EU Are Partners, Not Rivals, Says Chinese Foreign Minister

Wang Yi hopes that Hungary will continue to encourage the EU to pursue a more open cooperation policy with China.Continue reading

Via MTI, Featured image via MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Fischer Zoltán