We are celebrating this year the fortieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the European Community; however, the act of filling this strategic partnership with genuine content is making very slow progress, Péter Szijjártó said in Beijing after he attended the grandiose military parade held on the Chinese Victory Day.
At his meetings, the Minister’s hosts raised this issue, and Mr Szijjártó himself agreed that “Europe is now undoubtedly falling behind in the world economic and world political race. As while we are occupied with our own problems, the rest of the power centres of the world are continuously reinforcing their positions in the world economy.”
Mr Szijjártó believes that while the European Union is unable to find an answer to the extremely testing challenges of business and migration, the United States is making every effort to conclude the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement within the shortest possible time. At the same time, the Chinese presence in Africa and Latin-America has been increasingly in evidence in the last few years.
„In this situation, it would be Europe’s vested interest to improve its cooperation with China as swiftly as possible. If we fail to achieve this, we may be unable to make up for our competitive disadvantage”, the Minister stressed.
Hungary declared also on the occasion of the Minister’s current visit that it supports the conclusion of the EU-China bilateral investment agreement at the earliest possible time, as well as the launch of a series of negotiations regarding the trade and cooperation agreement.
„Hungary – as has been stressed by my hosts – is at the fore of the development of European-Chinese relations. This is why the Chinese Government first signed an agreement on the „one belt one road” concept with Hungary, which in some way was also in recognition of the Hungarian Government’s easterly opening policy”, Mr Szijjártó underlined.
The Hungarian Minister was especially greeted by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife before the military parade held on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japanese aggression and the end of World War II in Asia among leaders from dozens of countries from around the world on Thursday.
Mr Szijjártó was received by Vice-President Li Yuanchao, who thanked the Minister for attending the anniversary event. He referred to Hungary as a reliable partner, and praised the good relations which exist between the two countries. At the same time, he thanked Budapest for having applied to host the China-Eastern-Central-European summit in 2017.
Mr Szijjártó asked for the Vice-President’s support with maintaining the growth rate of Chinese investments in Hungary sustainable as the investments of Huawei, Wanhua, the Bank of China and Westcast significantly contribute to the improved performance of the Hungarian economy.
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)
