Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said that among the most negative consequences of the war in Ukraine was the re-emergence of blocs in the world which, he added, went against Hungary’s interests. After talks with Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao in Beijing, Szijjártó said: “We want connections, not blocs, to be a basis on which the world operates in the coming period … We think that China’s global initiatives serve to achieve this goal, so we support these.” He emphasised the need to build EU-China cooperation based on mutual trust and benefits. “We do not agree with the position that brands China as a threat. Our position is that there are enormous opportunities in cooperation with China as a partner.” “For this reason, we’d like to develop steady cooperation between the EU and China, and placing Chinese companies on a list of EU sanctions or introducing restrictions on their exports would be insupportable,” Szijjártó said. He noted that in 2022 China’s GDP expanded to a new record, exceeding the total GPD of the European Union, while it created 12 million urban jobs within a single year. “These results indicate that Europe can only benefit from cooperation with China, and this is why we are urging strong cooperation built on mutual respect,” the Hungarian foreign minister said.