Chinese President Xi Jinping said Thursday during a visit to Hungary that China is upgrading diplomatic ties with the European country to an "all-weather" partnership.
"We are willing to take this as a new starting point to push bilateral relations and pragmatic cooperation into a golden channel and move towards a higher level," Xi said.
Hungary was the third and final stop of Xi’s first European tour in five years. Xi arrived in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, late Wednesday after visiting France and Serbia.
While in Budapest, the Chinese leader met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has expanded his country’s relations with China since he came into power in 2010. Xi encouraged China’s closest European Union ally to "play a bigger role in the EU and push for new and greater development of China-EU relations."
Hungary is scheduled to assume the rotating presidency of the EU in July.
Hungary and China announced that they signed 18 bilateral agreements to increase their economic and cultural ties. Xi said that the bilateral relationship between Beijing and Budapest "is now at its best in history," according to a statement released after the meeting.
New projects that were announced Thursday included an oil pipeline between Hungary and Serbia and coordination between Beijing and Budapest in the nuclear sector.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto also said Hungary and China will begin preparing the construction of a Budapest railway that will transport goods produced by Chinese factories in eastern Hungary to markets in Western Europe.
Hungary has become an important investment and trade partner for China at a time when other European Union countries have started distancing themselves from the East Asian country. Budapest, meanwhile, has grown closer with Beijing and Moscow.
Beijing has invested billions in Hungary and sees it as an important gateway to the 27-member European Union bloc.
China is financing a major high-speed rail project linking the capitals of Hungary and Serbia. The rail project will cost $2.1 billion and will be mostly financed by a loan from China. The project is part of the Belt and Road Initiative, a plan Xi launched a decade ago to build global infrastructure and energy networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa.
"I would like to assure the president that Hungary will continue to provide fair conditions for Chinese companies investing in our country," Orban said. "We will create the opportunity for the most modern Western and the most modern Eastern technologies to meet and build cooperation in Hungary."
During Xi’s first stop in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen pressed Xi to ensure fair trade with Europe and use his influence on Russia to end the 2-year-old war in Ukraine.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
