Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán holds talks with Xi Jinping during a surprise visit to Beijing on Monday, days after meeting Russian President Putin in Moscow.
“Peace Mission 3.0.” – was Orbán’s title for a photo published early Monday on social media platform X showing him disembarking from a plane in Beijing. He was greeted by Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Hua Chunying and other officials.
Orbán later met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Apart from Russia and Ukraine, ending the war “depends on the decision of three world powers – the United States, the European Union and China”, Orbán wrote in a Facebook post where he shakes Xi’s hand.
Orbán met Xi just two months ago when he hosted the Chinese leader in Hungary as part of a three-country European tour that also included stops in France and Serbia, which, unlike the other two countries, is not a member of the European Union or NATO.
Hungary under Orbán has developed significant political and economic ties with Beijing. That European country is home to several Chinese electric car battery factories, and in December it was announced that Chinese electric car giant BYD would open its first European electric car factory in the south of the country.
His previously unannounced visit followed similar trips last week to Moscow and Kyiv, where he suggested Ukraine should consider an immediate ceasefire with Russia.
Hungary took over the rotating EU presidency in early July, and Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that Orbán had travelled to Moscow as a senior European Council official. Several senior European officials rejected that assumption and said Orbán had no mandate to do anything other than discuss bilateral relations.
Beijing sticks to neutrality in the conflict
Orbán’s visit comes a day before the start of a NATO summit in Washington, where US President Joe Biden will receive leaders of the bloc, which includes Hungary, and seek further support for Ukraine’s defence.
China is also expected to be on the agenda for that meeting, as NATO leaders are increasingly concerned about what they say is Beijing’s support for Moscow’s military efforts by providing dual-use goods and other economic and diplomatic support.
Beijing, Moscow’s most important diplomatic ally, has said it has not supplied arms to either side of the conflict and has defended what it calls strict export controls on dual-use goods.
Orbán’s visit to Moscow followed his visit to Kyiv early last week, when the Hungarian leader said he had asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to consider a ceasefire “first and foremost” to “accelerate peace talks” – a proposal that Zelensky’s administration rejected.
The head of the Hungarian government has come under fire from colleagues after visiting Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Orbán called the criticism of his visit to Moscow “bureaucratic nonsense.”
Italian journalist and activist Maurizio Belpietro commented on X on politicians’ reaction to Orbán’s meeting with the Russian president:
“When Erdogan and Macron flew to Moscow, nobody said a word. Now the Hungarian president’s mission to the Kremlin is enough to provoke a nervous breakdown on the Old Continent.”
