BUDAPEST - Chinese President Xi Jinping received a warm welcome in Hungary on May 9 as he held talks aimed at bolstering already flourishing ties with China’s closest European Union ally, amid divisions with the West over the Ukraine war and global trade.

The state visit to Hungary is the last leg of Mr Xi’s first European tour since 2019.

Mr Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan were received with military honours by Hungary’s President Tamas Sulyok in the lavish courtyard of Budapest’s presidential palace.

According to a statement issued after the meeting between the heads of state, Mr Xi said that the bilateral “relationship is now at its best in history”.

The Chinese leader met Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for talks at the Premier’s residence before delivering a statement to the press.

For the state visit, Budapest was decked out with Chinese flags and placed under tight security.

The few flags held up by Tibetan demonstrators were hidden from Mr Xi’s sight.

Before his arrival late on May 8, Mr Xi had praised in an op-ed published in Hungary’s Magyar Nemzet daily a “long-standing friendship” he described “as mellow and rich as Tokaji wine”, referring to wine from the renowned Hungarian vineyard region.

“We have gone through hardships together and defied power politics together amid volatile international situations.

“Our bilateral relationship... has embarked on a golden voyage... On the new journey of the new era, China looks forward to working closely with our Hungarian friends,” he wrote.

Deepening ties

Frequently at loggerheads with Brussels, Mr Orban has been pursuing an eastwards foreign policy since his return to power in 2010, seeking closer economic ties with Russia, China and other Asian countries.

The nationalist Premier remained committed to his strategy even as tensions between Western nations and Beijing increased over alleged human rights violations, the Covid-19 pandemic, trade and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Since Hungary began to promote itself as a global hub for electric vehicle manufacturing in 2022, several new Chinese businesses have sprung up all over the country.

Mr Xi’s three-day visit to Hungary after passing through Paris “shows Hungary’s growing importance in global politics”, Mr Orban’s chief of staff Gergely Gulyas told a government briefing on May 9.

According to the Hungarian government, at least 16 different agreements promoting cooperation with China in rail and road infrastructure, nuclear energy and the automotive industry are to be signed.

‘Undermine EU unity’

The Chinese leader kicked off his tour in France, a visit that was cordial but also highlighted tensions between Beijing and the EU over the war in Ukraine and global trade.

While French President Emmanuel Macron pressed a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade, Hungary will provide “a friendlier destination for Xi”, said Associate Professor Chong Ja Ian, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore.

In Hungary, a country with close ties to both Moscow and Beijing, Mr Xi will be able to “avoid tough conversations and awkward questions”, he added.

Both countries have called for a peaceful settlement of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“Hungary provides a diplomatic win for Xi, showing his warm ties with an EU member state that will still roll out the red carpet for Chinese investment,” said Ms Xiaoxue Martin, a research fellow at the Clingendael China Centre.

But analyst Claus Soong of the Mercator Institute for China Studies warned that “Xi aims to cultivate an image of China having a European ally and intends to exploit Hungary’s position to undermine EU unity”.

On the streets of Budapest, Hungarians were divided over the visit.

“Money does not smell, as they say, so other countries would welcome the kind of investment that is going to happen here, even in Western Europe, I assume,” said 52-year-old security manager Laszlo Toth.

But Mr Tibor Hendre, head of the Tibet Support Association, said he was worried that Hungary was “getting into... a debt trap, from which we cannot really escape”.

Software engineer Dezso Bereknyei, 46, said that “financial benefits” appeared to be driving the cooperation, and were “coming before environmental protection”. AFP