Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged world powers to help Russia and Ukraine resume direct dialogue as he held talks with Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who was in Beijing on a visit the European leader has branded as a “peace mission”.
Xi and Orban’s meeting in the Chinese capital on Tuesday came after the Hungarian leader made similar trips to Russia and Ukraine last week to discuss prospects for a peaceful settlement in the conflict, now in its third year.
Hungary assumed the rotating presidency of the European Union this month and Orban has since embarked on a peace mission, which, however, lacks the endorsement of other European nations.
“China is a key power in creating the conditions for peace in the Russia-Ukraine war,” Orban wrote on the social media platform X. “This is why I came to meet with President Xi in Beijing, just two months after his official visit to Budapest.”
Orban is widely seen as having the warmest relations with Xi and Putin among European leaders. His visit to Moscow last week drew condemnation from Ukraine and EU officials, who insisted Orban was not acting on behalf of the whole European bloc.
Their rebuke failed to deter Orban from extending a similar visit to Beijing, which he called “Peace mission 3.0” in a picture posted on X.
While hosting Orban, Xi called on Russia and Ukraine to cease fire and on other major powers to create an environment conducive to talks. Only when all major powers project “positive energy rather than negative energy” can a ceasefire occur, Xi said, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
For his part, Orban described China as a stabilizing force amid global turbulence and praised its “constructive and important” peace initiatives. These include a Chinese six-point peace plan, which it issued with Brazil in May.
China says it is neutral in the conflict, though in practice, it supports Moscow through frequent state visits, growing trade and joint military drills.
Hungary under Orban has built substantial political and economic ties with China. Orban hosted Xi in Hungary only two months ago as part of a three-country European tour that also included stops in France and Serbia, which, unlike the other two, is not a member of the EU or NATO.
During the trip, China upgraded its ties with Hungary to an “all-weather, comprehensive strategic partnership,” one of its highest designations for foreign relations which, in addition to Hungary, only applies only to Belarus, Pakistan and Venezuela.
The European nation hosts a number of Chinese electric vehicle (EV) battery facilities, and in December announced that Chinese EV manufacturing giant BYD will open its first European EV production factory in the south of the country.
The Hungarian prime minister broadly opposes Western military aid to Ukraine and has blocked, delayed or watered down EU efforts to assist Kyiv and impose sanctions on Moscow over its invasion. Orban has long argued for a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine but without outlining what that might mean for the country’s territorial integrity or future security.
That posture has frustrated Hungary’s EU and NATO allies who have denounced Russia’s invasion as a breach of international law and a threat to the security of Eastern Europe.
“With Europe trying to increasingly speak with one voice in its relations to China and Russia, Orban’s unannounced and uncoordinated trips are not helping in signalling or creating a unified European Union with regard to EU-China relations,” said Eva Seiwert, a foreign policy and security expert with the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin.
Orban’s proposals for resolving the war largely correspond with Putin’s interests, Seiwert added, though the Hungarian prime minister might prove helpful in organizing a peace conference in the future.
Source: Aljazeera and other media outlets
