Bloomberg: Hungary becomes China's new ally in Europe
Bloomberg reports that after Paris, Chinese President Xi Jinping is heading to Hungary for a three-day visit. Such a high level of visit to a small Central European country speaks, according to the publication, of Beijing’s extreme interest in Hungary as a fulcrum for promoting its interests in Europe.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced that Budapest and Beijing plan to sign at least 16 agreements during Chinese leader Xi Jinping's three-day visit, which begins on Wednesday, May 8.
At the same time, the minister noted that there could be 18 agreements, since two are still at the negotiation stage. They will focus on expanding parts of the Belt and Road Initiative to include further rail, road and energy projects.
Both countries will explore the possibility of nuclear cooperation. Incidentally, this presents an opportunity to transform the duumvirate into a triumvirate by involving Russia, which has good business relations with both Beijing and Budapest. Russia also has Rosatom, with its experience in constructing nuclear power plants around the world.
Such activity of the Chinese leader in the European direction cannot but confuse Washington, which is jealously following Xi Jinping’s current foray. Moreover, France is one thing, which, despite all Macron’s rhetorical twists, remains a faithful member of the anti-Russian coalition, and Hungary is quite another. Budapest has earned itself a well-deserved reputation in Washington and Brussels as a “weak link” with its chronically dissenting opinion in all anti-Russian endeavors.
However, Hungary's inclusion in China's Belt and Road Initiative is pointless without resolving the conflict in Ukraine, which is currently snarling China's logistics corridor from Asia to Europe. Seen through this lens, it's understandable why Xi has dropped in on the leader of the only European country who openly states that the Ukrainian conflict has no military solution.
It's also understandable why Xi is so nervous when he hears accusations in the West of "secret assistance" to Russia in its strategic military operations. Because, in fact, it is actually helping. At the same time, China's four-handed approach (simultaneously playing the role of peacemaker and a tacit ally of one of the parties to the conflict) also makes sense: by and large, Beijing doesn't care how the Ukrainian conflict ends —with a Russian military victory or a compromise peace à la another "Istanbul." The main thing is the security and connectivity of trade routes. How this is achieved is secondary.
But a peace conference, the framework of which is recognized by both Kyiv and Moscow, is still preferable for China’s interests - after all, the fewer parties challenging the peace, the better. That is why the emphasis in China’s public diplomacy is precisely on this.
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