Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect details of Orban’s meeting with President Xi Jinping.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán arrived in China on July 8, a few days after visiting Kiev and Moscow.
Orban, who assumed the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU earlier this month, called his visit to Beijing the third phase of his “peace mission”.
“China is an important country in creating the conditions for peace in the Russian-Ukrainian war. That is why I met with President Xi Jinping in Beijing just two months after his state visit to Budapest,” Orban said on X.
China has remained neutral in the ongoing war but has deepened economic ties with Russia and is Moscow’s main supplier of dual-use goods.
China has also proposed a peace plan with Brazil as an alternative to Ukraine peace efforts and hopes to secure international support for its proposal.
Orban met with Xi later in the day, posting joint photos on social media, and state news agency Xinhua said the two leaders exchanged “detailed views” on the Russia-Ukraine war.
According to Chinese media, the Hungarian prime minister updated Xi on his visits to Kiev and Moscow, while China’s Xi praised Orban’s “peace efforts” and stressed the need for an early ceasefire.
“China actively promotes peace negotiations in its own way, and encourages and supports all efforts leading to a peaceful resolution of the crisis,” Xi said, adding that China and Hungary’s efforts are heading in the same direction.
Both Kiev and Moscow rejected an early ceasefire, arguing that it would only benefit the opposing sides, giving them an opportunity to regroup.
The Hungarian prime minister’s visit to Moscow on July 5, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, sparked outrage across the EU. European officials stressed that the Hungarian prime minister has no authority to conduct “peace operations” on behalf of the EU and that Orbán’s efforts are bilateral efforts on Hungary’s side.
Budapest maintained close ties with Moscow throughout the all-out war, obstructing sanctions against Russia and criticizing military aid to Kiev for only “prolonging” and “escalating” the war.
Speaking at a meeting with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Orban said the two countries’ positions on the prospects for peace were “very far apart”.
Orban’s visit to Kiev, Moscow tests EU presidency’s limits, say experts
Pavel Havlicek, a researcher at the Institute of International Affairs, said Viktor Orban’s actions “show that he is playing a different game and taking advantage of the vacuum as the composition of these (EU) institutions changes” after the European elections.
