Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit France, Serbia and Hungary from 5 to 10 May, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday.
Bilateral relations with France have maintained good growth momentum, and the two countries have maintained strategic ties and practical cooperation, ministry spokesman Lin Jian said, discussing Xi’s trip to France. Lin also added:
“China looks forward to working with France to further enhance political mutual trust, solidarity and co-operation.”
He also said Xi will hold talks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić to exchange views on bilateral relations and discuss the modernisation of China-Serbia relations.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is seeking to expand economic ties with China, including by increasing Hungary’s participation in the Belt and Road Initiative, which includes further railway modernisation projects as well as funding for a new oil pipeline linking it to Serbia. Xi Jinping is expected to arrive in Hungary after visiting France and Serbia.
Meanwhile, Fan Weiguo, director of the Asia-Europe Bureau of Xinhua News Agency, told the media that NATO committed wild crimes by bombing the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999. Weiguo stated:
China has not forgotten and will never forget it. These are NATO’s savage crimes.
Fan Weiguo added that no one other than NATO, other than the US, could launch a missile strike on the embassy of another sovereign country. He cited Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, who said in July 2023 that the Chinese people remembered the embassy bombing and would not forget the debt of blood.
In the air attacks on Belgrade on 7 May 1999, the US struck the Chinese Embassy with three bombs dropped by a B-2 strategic bomber and directed to the target via a global satellite communications system. As a result, three Chinese journalists were killed. 20 members of the diplomatic staff were injured. The US claimed that the bombing was accidental and occurred due to a mistake by the Central Intelligence Agency.
