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FM: Hungary’s relations with China have never been as good as they are today

“Today, China is our number one trade partner outside the European Union,” the Foreign Minister said.

The Foreign Minister has declared that Hungary’s relations with China have never been as good as they are today.

“Hungary is a middle-sized country with an extremely open economy, and it is good news from the perspective of the performance of the economy that relations with China, which is undertaking a major role with relation to global economic changes, are set on a foundation of mutual respect and have never been as good as they are today,” Péter Szijjártó said.

In Budapest on Friday, Minister Szijjártó held talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and emphasized that Hungarian-Chinese political, economic, trade and cultural relations are exceptionally good.

The Minister said Hungary has worked hard to achieve this; cooperation with China is in Hungary’s interests, and accordingly “we will not be giving it up”, he declared. “Today, China is our number one trade partner outside the EU,” he explained.

“Chinese companies continue to view Hungary as an attractive investment destination, and their investments are bringing new technologies to Hungary with which they are greatly facilitating the Hungarian economy in the success of its dimensional transition,” the Minister stated. “In Hungary, the same rules apply to all enterprises; here, no company can be discriminated against because of its origin,” he added.

According to MTI, the Minister recalled that Hungary was the first EU member state to join the bilateral agreement linked to the One Belt, One Road strategy, and we regard the initiative as “the foundation for new Eurasian cooperation”.

“The closest and most effective possible cooperation with China is in Europe’s interests,” he added. As he explained, the strategy and opening towards the east serves the interests of the Hungarian economy and provides a major opportunity “to achieve further foreign trade success”.

Photo credit: kormany.hu