Chinese investments worth EUR 16.5 billion underway in Hungary

Chinese investments worth 6,400 billion forints (EUR 16.5bn) are underway in Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a joint press statement with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.

Bilateral trade has grown from 3 billion US dollars to 12 billion in twenty years, while there are seven Chinese city destinations reachable by air from Budapest, Orbán said.

He said today’s joint statement spoke of a strategic partnership, adding that it was both “an honour and a great opportunity” for Hungary to be able to participate in the modernisation of China’s economy. This was also true of China’s willingness to participate in the development and modernisation of Hungary’s economy, he added.

From virtually zero Chinese investments in Hungary twenty years ago, three-quarters of incoming investments came China last year, providing “a safe and predictable livelihood to tens of thousands of people”.

Orbán said Hungary was “proud” to be well situated in the competition for such investments, noting that the country “provides fair and decent conditions for Chinese companies that invest here”.

The prime minister said Hungary was a meeting point for cutting-edge Western and Eastern technologies. Hungarians, he said, had “serious ambitions”. Hungary, he added, had lost the previous “shameful century”, but it wanted to win the 21st century. “For this we need partners, investors and the world’s most modern technologies,” he said.

Orbán: Great potential in nuclear cooperation

Cooperation between Hungary and China across the spectrum of the nuclear industry holds great potential, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Budapest on Thursday.

In a joint press statement with Xi, the Hungarian prime minister said this intent was as much an expression of trust as “an economic fact”.

Referring to Hungary’s “significant international experience and prestige” in the nuclear industry, Orbán said: “For over fifty years we’ve been in this industry, and Europe’s biggest nuclear development is underway in Hungary.” By the start of the next decade the proportion of nuclear energy in Hungary’s energy mix is planned to be 60-70 percent, he added.

Orbán thanked Xi for agreeing to new Hungarian agricultural and food exports to China.

Orbán: Hungary backs China’s peace initiative

Hungary supports China’s peace initiative aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a joint press statement with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Budapest on Thursday.

Orban said that Europe today was “on the side of war” with the sole exception of Hungary.

He noted that Hungary has called for an immediate ceasefire and peace negotiations, and backs “all international efforts aimed at peace”.

The prime minister said no solution to the war could be found on the battlefield. “We need a ceasefire and peace negotiations,” he reiterated.

Xi Jinping: China, Hungary ‘have always been friends’

China and Hungary “have always been friends”, but now the two countries’ ties are the best they have ever been, President Xi Jinping said in Budapest on Thursday in a joint press statement with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

During his meeting with Orbán, he said they agreed on the enduring mutual trust and friendship that characterised relations between the two countries as well as their desire to establish mutually beneficial cooperation.

Bilateral ties “must be further developed”, Xi said, noting that they had formulated a statement on a “comprehensive strategic partnership”.