The last stop in the Chinese president’s Europe tour is Hungary — the first EU country to participate in Xi’s signature Belt and Road Initiative.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is due to hold talks with Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, on Thursday in Budapest.
Xi arrived in Hungary on Wednesday evening, after meeting leaders in France and Serbia on his first state visit to Europe since 2019.
In the Hungarian pro-government daily Magyar Nemzet, Xi wrote that he “developed deep friendships” with Hungarian politicians. He also described Hungary as “the number one target in the central eastern European region for Chinese investment.”
What is on the agenda?
Russia’s war in Ukraine is likely to be a topic of discussion. Earlier this week in Paris, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron sought to press Xi to use his influence on Moscow to end the conflict.
China and Hungary are also expected to sign more than 16 new cooperation agreements, according to Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.
Those agreements could include a large-scale infrastructure project within the Belt and Road Initiative, Szijjarto told the press earlier this week.
Budapest was the first EU member nation that joined the Belt and Road Initiative — the plan launched by Xi in 2013 to build networks connecting Asia, Africa and Europe.
It’s unclear whether there could also be an agreement on security, after China offered in February to cooperate on public security and law enforcement issues.
Source: Dw
