Following his talks with Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao, the minister said that "this means that from June seven Chinese cities will be accessible by direct flights from Budapest, bringing the number of flights to 19 per week, which is one and a half times more than before Covid and far more than any other Central European airport or city accessible from China".
The day before, Péter Szijjártó announced in Beijing that Xi'an will also be directly accessible from Budapest from this summer. This means that seven major Chinese cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Ningbo, Chongqing, Xi'an, Shenzhen and Guangzhou - can now be reached from Budapest.
The Hungarian minister attended a meeting of the Hungarian-Chinese Joint Economic Committee and will also meet his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
"This mutually beneficial Chinese-Hungarian cooperation is clear proof that the European Union is making a huge mistake when it portrays China and cooperation with China as a threat,"
he said. "We do not see cooperation with China as a threat or even a risk, but as a huge opportunity," Szijjártó explained. "That is why we oppose any European approach that tries to portray China as a threat, that seeks to limit cooperation with China, and we oppose any action by the European Union that would make economic cooperation between Europe and China more difficult. That is why we are also opposed to the planned procedures that the European Union intends to launch against the Chinese electric car sector," he added.
He said that in a new world economic era of significant change, it was important to have close, effective cooperation between the EU and China based on mutual respect. The minister recalled that last year the East Asian country had attracted the most investment to Hungary, and said it was good news that Beijing continued to support companies in establishing a presence in Hungary.
