Xi Jinping visits Hungary after Serbia

Chinese President Xi Jinping is visiting Budapest today. One of the topics of negotiations with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is expected to be the war in Ukraine.

The Chinese leader arrived in the Hungarian capital late the night before from Serbia. In Belgrade, he met with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Earlier, Xi Jinping spent three days in France, discussing mainly trade issues with Emmanuel Macron and EU leaders. European negotiators also said they were urging Xi to influence Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine as quickly as possible.

Hungary’s position on the war differs from that of most EU countries. Hungary does not supply weapons to Ukraine and often criticizes the Ukrainian authorities, and also calls on Kyiv for peaceful negotiations with Russia without preconditions, which is unacceptable for Ukraine. The Chinese official position is not too different from the Hungarian one (Budapest, however, as an EU country participates in sanctions against Russia, China itself did not impose sanctions – although, in particular, its banks limited settlements with Russia due to fear of secondary sanctions.”

The day before, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and Viktor Orban spoke on the phone. Zelensky highly appreciated this conversation. Its details are not reported. In particular, it is not known whether he is connected with the visit of Xi Jinping and possible discussions with him of any peace initiatives.

A number of investment agreements are expected to be signed during Xi Jinping’s visit to Hungary. Amid tensions between the EU and China, Hungary remains one of Beijing’s most important trading partners in the region.

During visit to Serbia, which is a candidate for EU membership but maintains close ties with Russia and China, a strategic partnership agreement was signed. Vučić assured the Chinese leader that Belgrade considers Taiwan part of the PRC, and Xi Jinping said that both countries would work together to “resist hegemony.” Speaking about the war in Ukraine, Xi again called it a “crisis” and noted that its causes have nothing to do with China.