Xi Jinping will discuss war in Ukraine and investments in last stop on trip to Europe

Hungarian soldiers on horseback joined President Tamás Sulyok on Thursday to welcome Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Budapest’s Buda Castle, the third and final stop of Xi’s first trip to Europe in five years.

Hungary, under nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has become an important trade and investment partner for China, in contrast to other European Union countries that are considering reducing their dependence on the world’s second-largest economy.

Xi arrived in Budapest on Wednesday after visiting France and Serbia. In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen pressed him to ensure more balanced trade with Europe and use his influence over Russia to end the war in Ukraine.

Xi “has developed deep friendships” with Hungarian politicians and Hungary is “the number one target in the Central-Eastern European region for Chinese investment,” Xi wrote in the Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet on Wednesday.

Xi will meet Orbán later this Thursday, with the war in Ukraine and infrastructure projects at the top of the agenda.

Hungary and China, celebrating their 75th year of diplomatic relations, are also expected to sign 16 to 18 new cooperation agreements, one of which could be a large-scale infrastructure project within China’s massive New Silk Road project, said Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó this week.

Press outlets reported that Xi and Orbán may travel to the city of Pecs, in the south of the country, to announce that Chinese company Great Wall Motor will build a factory and produce electric vehicles there.

Szijjártó denied that the two leaders would travel to Pecs in a statement on Monday, but said “there were ongoing negotiations with major Chinese companies about new investments.” The government did not respond to a request for comment on the press reports.

Orbán began moving his country closer to Beijing after he came to power in 2010. Warm political relations turned into investment about a decade later, when battery and electric vehicle makers began moving their production to Hungary.