Hungary will do everything required of it to strengthen cooperation between its own health-care system and those of the other members of China’s Belt and Road initiative and to bring about effective cooperation in health research, the finance minister said after a videoconference involving Belt and Road countries. Participants in the meeting adopted a joint declaration on the fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic, the finance ministry said in a statement. Citing the declaration, Mihály Varga said the pandemic presented a global challenge which required unity, solidarity and a multilateral response.
Relations between Hungary and China are closer than ever and Hungary also aims to expand and strengthen its broad partnerships with other Belt and Road members as well, the ministry quoted Varga as saying. He cited the upgrade of the Budapest-Belgrade rail line as an example of the level of cooperation among different regions, saying that it bound China together with European countries both inside and outside the European Union.
The Belt and Road initiative, originally aimed at creating a new “Silk Road” of trade links between China and Europe, now seeks to promote cooperation in the areas of education, media, innovation, intellectual property rights and health research. Hungary was the first EU member state to sign the bilateral agreement on the initiative in 2015, the ministry noted.