{"id":4815,"date":"2024-07-08T16:14:20","date_gmt":"2024-07-08T10:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=4815"},"modified":"2024-07-08T16:14:20","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T10:29:20","slug":"hungary-pm-orban-in-beijing-on-peace-mission-3-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/hungary-pm-orban-in-beijing-on-peace-mission-3-0\/","title":{"rendered":"Hungary PM Orban in Beijing on ‘Peace mission 3.0’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Monday, state media reported, in a visit the European leader has branded as a “Peace mission 3.0” after recent trips to Moscow and Kyiv.<\/p>\n

The unannounced visit comes a day before NATO is due to hold a summit to mark its 75th anniversary, with setbacks in Ukraine set to dominate discussions, and follows Orban’s surprise trips to Russia and Ukraine in the past week.<\/p>\n

Orban, the friendliest EU leader towards Moscow, held talks with President Vladimir Putin on Friday about the war in Ukraine during a trip criticised by both Kyiv and the EU, which said it threatened to undermine the bloc’s stance on the conflict.<\/p>\n

Putin told Orban, that Ukraine must withdraw its troops from regions that Moscow has annexed if it wants peace.<\/p>\n

Hungary took over the European Union’s rotating presidency at the start of July, and the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Orban’s trip to Russia was purely a bilateral affair and he “has not received any mandate from the EU Council to visit Moscow”.<\/p>\n

In a short statement earlier, the Chinese foreign ministry said the Hungarian leader would meet Xi “for in-depth communication on issues of mutual interest”.
\nClose to both Xi and the Kremlin, Orban has refused to send weapons to Kyiv, unlike his fellow EU leaders.<\/p>\n

China and Russia’s strategic partnership has grown closer since the invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Beijing presents itself as a neutral party in the war and says it is not sending lethal assistance to either side, unlike the United States and other Western nations.<\/p>\n

It has however offered a critical lifeline to Russia’s isolated economy, with trade booming since the conflict began.<\/p>\n

Orban was greeted at the airport by Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, according to a photo the nationalist leader posted on social media platform X.<\/p>\n

– Major investment –<\/p>\n

Xi visited Hungary in May this year, for the final leg of a European tour that also led him to France and Serbia.<\/p>\n

Following a meeting with Orban, Xi said Beijing placed “great importance” on its relations with the EU.<\/p>\n

Despite its small size, the Central European country of 9.6 million people has attracted a flood of major Chinese projects in recent years, mostly related to battery and electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing.<\/p>\n

The Hungarian government boasted about having around 15 billion euros ($16 billion) worth of ongoing projects originating from the Asian country.<\/p>\n

Orban has been championing an “Eastern opening” foreign policy since his return to power in 2010, seeking closer economic ties to China, Russia and other Asian countries.<\/p>\n

Last October, the Hungarian premier was the sole EU leader to attend the summit for Xi’s flagship Belt and Road initiative in Beijing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Monday, state media reported, in a visit the European leader has branded as a “Peace mission 3.0” after recent trips to Moscow and Kyiv. The unannounced visit comes a day before NATO is due to hold a summit to mark its 75th […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4815"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4817,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4815\/revisions\/4817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}