Péter Szijjártó called Xi’s visit “historic’ as it was the first time for a Chinese president to visit Hungary in the past twenty years. He also noted that Hungary and China were celebrating the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties. Szijjártó said talks between the Chinese President and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had been “extremely successful”. He said the two sides expanded an earlier a list of joint projects under the Belt and Road Initiative aimed at developing East-West connections, and would start preparations of a Hungarian-Chinese project to build a railway ring around Budapest. The ring, he said, was needed to make transport between large Chinese investments in the eastern parts of Hungary and western markets more efficient and sustainable.
“Similarly, we will start preparations for an express rail link aimed at providing fast and civilised access from central Budapest to the airport,” he said. Preparations for the development of a nationwide network of charging points for electric cars will also get under way, the minister said.