While Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban calls his previously unannounced trip to China a peace mission, analysts expect the meeting in Beijing to draw anger from his fellow EU leaders.
In a Tuesday post on Orban's X social media account, he shared a video of himself in Beijing, along with music, meeting with Chinese officials including President Xi Jinping. He labeled the trip as "Peace Mission 3.0."
Orban met with Xi on Monday to discuss the war in Ukraine and bilateral relations, just days after his nation assumed a six-month term in the rotating presidency of the European Union.
EU leaders were already nervous about Orban's plans, given that he has been warmer than his neighbors to the authoritarian leaders in Moscow and Beijing.
Neither the Hungarian nor the Chinese government disclosed Orban's visit in advance.
On Sunday, Hungarian local news reported a Dassault Falcon 7X aircraft, which Orban often uses for military and political purposes, had been tracked flying from Budapest to Beijing. But it was not until the next day, when Orban met Xi, that the trip was made public.
Anonymous diplomatic sources told the Shanghai-based news outlet The Paper that Orban's visit was not at China's invitation but was a "surprise" visit.
Earlier this month, Orban visited Kyiv and Moscow in what he called a "peace mission."
Josep Borrell, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said Orban represented only Hungary, not the EU, when he visited Moscow.
The Associated Press quoted European Commission spokesperson Eric Mamer saying, "This is about appeasement. It's not about peace."
Chinese news agency Xinhua was more positive about the visit, saying, "Hungary is willing to take the rotating EU presidency as an opportunity to actively promote the sound development of EU-China relations."
In a readout of the Xi-Orban meeting, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the "two sides focused on in-depth communication on the Ukrainian crisis."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Li Jian said at a Tuesday press conference, "China calls on all relevant parties to observe three principles for de-escalating the situation, namely no expansion of the battlefield, no escalation of fighting and no fanning up the flames by any party, and create conditions for direct dialogue between Russia and Ukraine."
Orban said his next stop is Washington.
While President Joe Biden has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine's bid to regain all of its lost territory, it is expected that if former president Donald Trump is elected as the next president in November, U.S. foreign aid, including to Ukraine, may be reduced.
Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., praised Orban as a "peacemaker" on X, saying: "Prime Minister Orban, like my father, wants to see PEACE brought back to the world."
Orban's visit should be understood from the perspective of Hungary's history, said Italian sinologist Francesco Sisci.
"Hungary is a small but proud people squeezed for centuries between Germans and Slavs, and so it always sought its unique position. It was the other side of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but it was rebellious to Vienna. It was part of the Soviet bloc but was the first to turn against the USSR. Now it's part of the EU and NATO, but its president reaches out to Russia and China."
"Hungary tries to find its own unique position," he added, "but it's not leaving NATO or the EU, as it didn't split from Austria."
Alicja Bachulska, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that Orban is clearly trying to use Hungary's EU presidency to position himself as a potential peacemaker in Ukraine.
"His approach, however, clearly contradicts the position of most EU states regarding the war in Ukraine," she told VOA.
"Orban is instrumentalizing his position to domestically strengthen his own image as a capable leader, while internationally he's advancing his particular interests (such as strengthening of bilateral ties with China and Russia) to the detriment of EU's unity."
Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis, said China should consider how over-reliance on maverick Hungary could affect its overall relations with Europe.
Orban's visit to Moscow "is definitely beneficial to Russia because Russia has nothing to lose," she said in an interview.
"But Orban's visit to China may not be beneficial to China because China needs to negotiate with the new European Commission led by [Ursula] von der Leyen, such as the taxation of electric vehicles."
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
