China’s Director of the CPC Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs Wang Yi held talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó in Budapest on Feb. 19-20, on the last step of his tour of European countries. Orbán received the senior Chinese diplomat at a private dinner on Feb. 19.
Szijjártó held talks with Wang Yi on Feb. 20 about the cooperation between China and the 16-odd countries of Central Europe, as well as the strategic partnership between their two countries. “We met for the first time eight and a half years ago when I traveled to Beijing as a new minister at the invitation of my Chinese counterpart [then-Foreign Minister Wang Yi]. This is the 15th time we have met since then, and in that time, beyond professional cooperation, I can safely say that we have developed a friendly relationship,” Szijjártó wrote on Facebook. He stressed that, “as Foreign Minister Wang Yi has done a great deal to improve relations between China and Hungary, from which our country has benefited enormously.”
