Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Budapest on Thursday on the last stop of his trip to Europe and the two leaders committed to closer ties.
They agreed on a “comprehensive strategic partnership” between the two countries, the leaders said in a joint statement broadcast on Hungarian state television.
Orbán said that the two countries had always been friends and that Chinese companies are securing tens of thousands of jobs in Hungary today.
Hungary wants to use the opportunities arising from high-quality Chinese investments in e-mobility and from Chinese technology transfers, Orbán said.
Xi meanwhile called for a further expansion of relations between the two countries. “We both believe that the traditional friendship between our countries is based on solid foundations,” he said.
The Chinese president also visited Budapest to mark the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Hungary and China.
The delegations signed a slew of intergovernmental agreements on the sidelines of the visit, though no details were provided by Hungarian state television, the only Hungarian broadcaster allowed to attend the ceremony. Even the outlines of the agreed “comprehensive strategic partnership” are vague. Orbán merely said the two countries wanted to work together in the nuclear industry, too. “This has not been the case so far,” he said.
Hungary is the only European Union country participating in China’s Belt and Road infrastructure and investment initiative.
With friendly relations with Beijing, Orbán wants to create a counterweight to the situation in the EU, where he is often isolated.
China is building a railway link some 350 kilometres long between the Hungarian capital Budapest and the Serbian capital Belgrade.
In Hungary, China is also building large factories for the production of electric cars and the associated batteries.
For months, Hungary has seen has seen protests by environmentalists and legal challenges against the Chinese battery factory planned in Debrecen in the north of the country.
Xi’s trip to Europe ended in Hungary after stops in France and Serbia earlier in the week.
