In Budapest, Xi hails a ‘deep friendship’ with Hungary
Union at odds with EU states as tensions bubble
WARSAW — President Xi Jinping of china on thursday found another safe zone in a continent increasingly wary of his country, meeting in Budapest with the Hungarian prime minister, viktor Orban, the European Union’s perennial odd man out as a vocal supporter of warm relations with both china and Russia.
As happened at his previous stop in Serbia, Xi received a redcarpet welcome and was spared from protesters, with his motorcade from the airport Wednesday evening taking a roundabout route into the Hungarian capital, avoiding a small group of tibetan demonstrators.
Police banned a protest planned for thursday in the center of Budapest, and a tibetan flag that had been hoisted on a hill overlooking the venue of a welcome reception was covered with a chinese one.
After their talks thursday ended, Xi and Orban held what was billed as a news conference, but it consisted of their reading statements without taking questions, a format preferred by the chinese leader, who avoids unscripted media encounters.
they pledged to elevate already-friendly relations to an “all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership” — a sharp divergence from the view of china held by the European Union, of which Hungary is a member, as “a partner for cooperation, an economic competitor, and a systemic rival.”
Orban, under fire from many fellow European leaders for pushing what he calls a “policy of peace” in Ukraine — effectively a demand that its president, volodymyr Zelensky, capitulate to avoid further bloodshed — offered “special thanks” to Xi for “the steps that the People’s Republic of china is taking to create peace.”
china has declined to condemn Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and, according to the United States, has helped Russia’s military continue its assault on Ukrainian territory by providing satellite imagery to Russian forces, along with jet fighter parts, microchips, and other dual-use equipment.
“Our voice, the voice of Hungary, is a lonely voice in Europe. today, Europe is on the side of war. the only exception is Hungary, which calls for an immediate cease-fire and peace negotiations,” Orban said, applauding china’s own vague peace plan, announced last year.
With nothing to announce on Ukraine beyond calls for peace, Hungary and china focused on economic cooperation. the Hungarian foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, announced 18 joint projects, including a high-speed railway to the international airport from downtown Budapest and a new rail line across the country to transport electric cars, batteries, and other products from chinese factories planned for eastern Hungary to European markets in the West. they also agreed to cooperate on nuclear energy projects.
In an article in magyar Nemzet, which is controlled by Orban’s governing Fidesz party, Xi gushed about his “deep friendship” with Hungarian leaders and described Hungary as a trusted “traveling companion” on what he called a “golden voyage” that had taken relations to their “best period of history.” Hungary, he noted, was “the No. 1 target in the central Eastern European region for chinese investment.”