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”.

“Mutual political trust has created the bedrock for strengthening Chinese-Hungarian relations,” he said.

Meanwhile, Xi said China highly valued Hungary’s “firm commitment to the One China policy”, and he pledged to provide China’s steady support for Hungary’s economic development.

He added that both countries planned to deepen their economic, commercial and financial cooperation in the future.

Szijjártó: Hungary-China summit yields ‘results worthy of historic visit’

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visiting Hungary is of historic importance and the summit has yielded results matching the occasion, the minister of foreign affairs and trade said on Thursday, adding that representatives of the two countries had signed 18 important agreements.

Péter Szijjártó called Xi’s visit “historic’ as it was the first time for a Chinese president to visit Hungary in the past twenty years. He also noted that Hungary and China were celebrating the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties.

Szijjártó said talks between the Chinese President and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had been “extremely successful”. He said the two sides expanded an earlier a list of joint projects under the Belt and Road initiative aimed at developing East-West connections, and would start preparations of a Hungarian-Chinese project to build a railway ring around Budapest. The ring, he said, was needed to make transport between large Chinese investments in the eastern parts of Hungary and western markets more efficient and sustainable.

“Similarly, we will start preparations for an express rail link aimed at providing fast and civilised access from central Budapest to the airport,” he said. He also noted that seven large cities in China were now accessible from Budapest by way of a daily 19 direct flights.

Preparations for the development of a nationwide network of charging points for electric cars will also get under way, the minister said.

Szijjártó said Hungary and Serbia was embarking on building Europe’s most modern, biggest, safest and fastest border crossing.

“The road crossing at Roszke is extremely busy. We’re all too familiar with the images of long lines of lorries and cars. We don’t want this to be the case in the future…” he said.

The minister announced that Serbian and Chinese partners would examine how to build a crude pipeline in the shortest possible time between Hungary and Serbia, with the goal of beefing up the security of energy supplies for the two countries and the whole region.

Meanwhile, he said farm exports were important to bilateral trade, noting that Hungary has the most Chinese export licences in central Europe. Thanks to today’s agreement, more produce has been added to the list, he said, citing the example of cherries.

Also, cooperation will be extended to nuclear energy, he said. “We have now agreed with the Chinese government on drafting a cooperation agreement covering the length and breadth of the nuclear industry to ensure both countries’ access to the cheapest, safest, most efficient way of producing electricity,” Szijjártó said.

Demand for electricity will increase sharply the world over, he said, adding that nuclear energy best met such demand.

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