Hungary will continue to remain a good friend of China, a country with which it has deep relations, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the only EU head of state participating in the Belt and Road Initiative forum, assured on Monday from Beijing. reports

Upon his arrival in Beijing on Monday morning, Orbán was received by his Chinese counterpart Li Qiang, with the Budapest-based leader stressing that Hungary has “high hopes” for cooperation between the two countries.

The Hungarian Prime Minister recalled that it will soon be 75 years since the establishment of relations between the two countries, and recalled that he also had “fruitful cooperation” and friendly relations with Li Qiang’s predecessors.

Political friendship also has a deeper, cultural basis, Viktor Orbán explained, noting that Hungary was the first country in the Soviet bloc to recognize the legitimacy of Mao Zedong’s communist regime. Hungary is the only Central European state that has always insisted on the “one China” principle from the beginning, the Prime Minister of Hungary emphasized.

Orbán also recalled that Chinese President Xi Jinping first hosted him in 2009, when Xi was vice president and he was the opposition leader in Hungary.

They will hold talks again on Tuesday, which will be their seventh meeting, “which also demonstrates the friendship between the two peoples.”

The Prime Minister of Hungary refers to the “example of predecessors” in relations with China

“I will do everything to conduct a foreign policy towards China worthy of the example of our predecessors,” Viktor Orban emphasized.

Li Qiang noted that the two states are connected by close friendship, which in turn contributes to the development of bilateral relations at the highest level. The Chinese Prime Minister also noted that Hungarian-Chinese relations are now in the best period and that a new type of international relations has been formed.

After the meeting, a number of intergovernmental agreements were signed in the presence of the prime ministers, including key bilateral projects of the Belt and Road initiative, as well as agreements on developments in the field of economy, technology development, digital economy and climate protection. .

Viktor Orbán will take part in the third summit of the “One Belt, One Road” Forum on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Prime Minister of Hungary also spoke at two previous summits, in 2017 and 2019. China is the ninth most important trade partner of Hungary, and this year is also the country’s largest foreign direct investor.

Viktor Orban and Putin are present in China at the Belt and Road Forum.

China says more than 130 countries, mostly from Latin America and Africa, will participate in the Belt and Road Forum this year. However, unlike other years, many countries sent ministers rather than heads of state.

Orbán is the only EU head of state to attend the forum this year, as relations between Western offices and Beijing have cooled significantly in recent years.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is also due to arrive in China for the forum amid a rapprochement between the two countries since the start of the war in Ukraine. This will be Putin’s second visit abroad since the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest in March.

Putin last week visited Kyrgyzstan, one of Russia’s allies in the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a military alliance led by Moscow.

Hungary Today notes that Orbán may meet with the Russian president at a forum in China, although the offices of the two heads of state have not yet made official announcements on this matter.