China’s President Xi Jinping has hailed Hungary as one of Beijing’s most important strategic partners, showering accolades on maverick Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s country during a trip to Europe that analysts have said is intended to widen divisions in the EU and Nato.
China and Hungary had upgraded their relationship to an “all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership for the new era”, Xi told carefully selected journalists in Orbán’s office atop the Buda Castle Hill in Budapest.
“Our bilateral relationship is at the best it has ever been in our history,” Xi said. “We will do our utmost to guide our relationship and co-operation on to a golden path, which helps us attain loftier goals.”