Chinese President Xi Jinping has concluded a five-day tour of Europe, after visiting France, Serbia and Hungary, where he touted Beijing’s vision of a multipolar world and held talks on trade, investments and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron feted Xi with gifts of luxury bottles of cognac and a trip to a childhood haunt in the Pyrenees mountains, while in Serbia, President Aleksandar Vucic organised a grand welcome, gathering a crowd of tens of thousands of people, who chanted “China, China” and waved Chinese flags in front of the Serbian presidential palace.
In Hungary, President Tamas Sulyok and Prime Minister Viktor Orban also rolled out the red carpet for Xi, receiving him with military honours at the Hungarian presidential palace.
The tour marked Xi’s first trip to Europe in five years and came at a symbolic time for the three nations.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and France, and the 75th of those with Hungary. The trip also coincided with the 25th anniversary of the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during Serbia’s war on Kosovo.
Xi’s main aim with the visit, analysts say, was pushing for a world where the United States is less dominant, and controlling damage to China’s ties with the European Union as trade tensions grow amid a threat of European tariffs and a probe into Chinese subsidies for electric vehicles that European officials say are hurting local industries.
People waving Chinese and Serbian flags gathered outside the Palace of Serbia during a welcome ceremony for Chinese President Xi Jinping in Belgrade [Dimitrije Goll/ Serbia’s Presidential press service via AFP]
Here are the main takeaways.
No concessions on trade, Russia-Ukraine
Throughout Xi’s two-day trip to France, Macron pressed the Chinese leader to address Beijing’s trade imbalances with the EU – which stood at a deficit of 292 billion euros ($314.72bn) last year – and to use his influence on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.
Macron invited European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to join his talks with Xi, to underline European unity on calls for greater access to the Chinese market and to address the bloc’s complaints regarding its excess capacity in electric vehicles and green technology. The pair also pushed Xi to control the sales of products and technologies to Russia that can be used for both civilian and military purposes.
But the Chinese leader appeared to have offered few concessions.
Xi denied there was a Chinese “overcapacity problem” and only reiterated his calls for negotiations to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. Xi, who is expected to host Putin in China later this month, said he called on all parties to restart contact and dialogue.
“Both trade and Russia are non-negotiable for China. Macron could not achieve anything [on those fronts],” said Shirley Yu, political economist and senior fellow at the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom.
But she suggested the visit furthered Macron’s personal relationship with Xi, one that is part of the French leader’s strategy to make France a crucial partner to all emerging world powers.
“Macron shares one vision in common with Xi, which is that the US hegemony – including the quest for Europe’s allegiance to the US’s foreign policy – must yield to a multipolar global order by accommodating the rising powers’ interests and concerns,” Yu told Al Jazeera. Macron’s recent visits to India and Brazil also “prove that France wants to stay at the forefront of that global shift,” she added.
And despite the lack of concessions, French officials told the Reuters news agency that the visit allowed Macron to pass on messages on Ukraine and would allow for more open discussions in the future.
As for Xi, Macron’s talk of European “strategic autonomy” helps further the Chinese leader’s vision for a multipolar world. And while there was no reconciliation on the economic front, Xi’s visit would help with “damage limitation” wrote Yu Jie, a senior research fellow on China at the Chatham House, a United Kingdom-based think tank. It could help prevent ties with Europe from worsening even more, as they have with the US, she said, amid the threat of European tariffs on Chinese goods and a probe into Chinese subsidies for electric vehicles.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, right, address the press after their official talks in the Carmelite Monastery, the prime minister’s office, at Buda Castle district in Budapest, Hungary on May 9, 2024 [Pool via AFP]
In contrast to Xi’s stop in France, his visits to EU candidate country Serbia and EU member state Hungary were marked by pledges to deepen political ties and expand investments in eastern and central Europe.
In Belgrade, Vucic, the Serbian president, signed up to Xi’s vision of a “global community of shared future” and the two leaders hailed an “ironclad partnership” while also announcing that a free trade deal signed between their two countries last year would come into effect on July 1.
Other economic promises included the purchases of new Chinese trains, new air links and increased Serbian imports.
Yu, the political economist at LSE, said Xi’s visit to Belgrade on the 25th anniversary of NATO’s bombing of the Chinese embassy in the city, was meant to make “clear that China and Russia share a common objection to NATO’s east expansion”. It also “reveals that there should be no illusion that China will bow down to Western pressure to curtail economic partnership with Russia,” she said.
In Budapest, Xi pledged more investments in transport and energy, including the construction of a high-speed railway connecting the capital city centre to its airport and cooperation in the nuclear sector, according to Hungarian officials. Xi also promised to move forward on a $2.1bn project to connect the Hungarian capital with the Serbian capital.
The project, most of which is financed by a loan from China, is part of the Belt and Road Initiative, the ambitious infrastructure plan launched by Xi a decade ago to connect Asia with Africa and Europe.
All this demonstrates Xi’s keenness “to reintroduce the Cold War ‘Second World’ as a significant geostrategic player,” said Yu. “With China’s economic support, the periphery of the EU can become more significant European economic players, boasting higher speed of growth and delivering high-tech supply chains,” she said.
To China, Hungary serves as a gateway to the EU trade bloc and Yu added that Beijing’s growing partnership with Hungary could also “potentially deem the EU’s sanctions on Chinese EVs ineffective”.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is on his first trip to Europe in five years, which is likely to be dominated by Russia’s war in Ukraine as well as economic strains between Beijing and Brussels.
The first stop will be France, with Xi due to hold talks in Paris on May 6 with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, before travelling south to the Pyrenees.
After that, he will travel to Serbia and Hungary, two countries that have maintained close ties with Russia despite its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
According to Matt Geracim, the assistant director of the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, the Chinese president is travelling to Europe with three goals: “repairing relations in Europe damaged by China’s support for Russia’s war on Ukraine, blunting the EU’s economic security agenda vis-a-vis China, and showcasing Beijing’s strong ties with its stalwart partners Serbia and Hungary.”
Here is all you need to know about Xi’s European tour, which continues until Friday.
The big picture
Beijing and Paris are marking 60 years since diplomatic relations were established, with France the first Western country to formally recognise the People’s Republic of China on January 27, 2024.
But the trip also comes amid a deteriorating global security climate, with the war in Ukraine now into its third year and at least 34,683 Palestinians killed in Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza.
France has said those two conflicts, particularly Ukraine where Beijing has professed neutrality but not condemned Moscow for its full-scale invasion, will feature prominently in the talks.
“Exchanges will focus on international crises, first and foremost the war in Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East,” the Elysee Palace said in a statement ahead of the visit last week.
Macron has recently emerged as one of the most hawkish of the EU leaders on the continent’s security, and he will be urging Xi to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine. In an interview with the Economist newspaper published last week, the French president argued the war was existential for Europe.
“If Russia wins in Ukraine there will be no security in Europe,” he said. “Who can pretend that Russia will stop there?” What security would there be, he asked, for neighbouring countries: Moldova, Romania, Poland, Lithuania and others?
To underline the unity of the European position, von der Leyen will also join Monday’s discussions, which are due to get under way just after 11am (09:00 GMT).
As well as the Ukraine war, Europe is also concerned about Chinese business practices and has initiated an investigation into China’s subsidies for electric vehicle manufacturers, amid concerns such payments are undermining competition and harming European companies.
The more than two-year-long war in Ukraine will be high on the agenda when Macron meets Xi [Ukraine Patrol Police via AP]
Macron told the Economist that he would also convey to Xi why Europe needs to safeguard its own manufacturers and industries.
Ahead of Xi’s departure last week, Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Beijing was ready to “work with France and the EU to take this meeting as an opportunity to make the China-EU relations more strategic, stable, constructive and mutually beneficial, promote steady and sustained progress in China-EU relations, and contribute to the prosperity of both China and Europe and a peaceful world.”
Following Monday’s summit, Marcon and his wife, Brigitte, will host Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, to a state banquet.
On Tuesday, Macron will take the Chinese leader to the Pyrenees mountains, where he made regular trips to see his grandmother as a child. The two couples are also expected to take a cable car up to the summit of the 2,877-metre (9,439 ft) Pic du Midi, a dark sky reserve.
After wrapping his trip in France, Xi will head to Serbia where he will arrive in Belgrade on the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese Embassy for talks with President Aleksandar Vucic. Three people were killed when Washington said it accidentally struck the compound during the NATO air campaign against Serb forces occupying Kosovo, in an event that triggered outrage and protests in China.
China has since emerged as the biggest single source of investment in Serbia, which is not a member of the EU, and prior to the trip Lin, the MOFA spokesperson, referred to the two countries’ ties as “ironclad”.
“The bombing remains a significant topic for Chinese officials, who use it to support narratives that question the values of liberal democracies,” Stefan Vladisavljev, programme director at Foundation BFPE for a Responsible Society wrote in an online analysis. “For Serbia, the visit presents an opportunity to strengthen its position as China’s main partner in the Western Balkans.”
Xi Jinping will arrive in Belgrade some 25 years since US bombs struck the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade [Marko Djurica/Reuters]
Xi will then travel on May 8 to Budapest, the final stop on his European tour.
There he will meet Hungarian President Viktor Orban, the most Russia-friendly leader in the EU.
Hungary, whose policies have raised concern among other EU members, has become more closely aligned with Beijing and Moscow and recently signed a security cooperation agreement with China that allows Chinese police officers to work in areas where there are large populations of ethnic Chinese or which are popular with Chinese tourists, according to Zoltan Feher is a nonresident fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub.
Reports on such Chinese police stations have raised alarm in other parts of Europe, particularly among exiles and dissidents.
Hungary is also part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which it joined in 2015, and the two men are likely to discuss the ongoing construction of the high-speed rail between Budapest and Belgrade.
Ukraine war
Macron has spoken increasingly about the need to develop Europe’s own security architecture rather than rely on NATO and the US.
He has even suggested that France would be willing to send its troops to Ukraine, if Russia broke through the front lines and Kyiv asked for assistance.
China has long maintained it is neutral in the war, but Beijing and Moscow have deepened their ties since the full-scale invasion began, and Putin is expected to visit China this month.
Macron will be hoping to persuade Xi of the need for China to get more closely involved in efforts to secure peace as Switzerland organises a peace conference next month to discuss a 10-point plan put forward by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the end of 2022.
The Swiss say they have already invited more than 160 delegations, but it is not clear whether Beijing, which has also put forward a proposal for peace talks and deployed its own envoy in the region, will attend.
Russia has repeatedly dismissed the process, and insists a precursor for negotiations is that Kyiv give up the 20 percent of its territory that Russia currently occupies.
“We must continue to engage China, which is objectively the international player with the greatest leverage to change Moscow’s mind,” the French newspaper Le Monde quoted an unnamed diplomatic source as saying.
Human rights
Chinese state media have been reporting breathlessly on Xi’s arrival in Paris; the streets decorated with Chinese and French flags and groups of Chinese nationals welcoming their president.
But campaigners for Tibet and Xinjiang, where the United Nations says China may have committed crimes against humanity in holding some 1 million ethnic Uighur Muslims in re-education camps, were also out on the streets of the capital.
The EU imposed targeted sanctions on certain Chinese officials and companies over Xinjiang in March 2021, prompting anger in Beijing.
Delighted to be at a protest in Paris “welcoming” Xi Jinping’s visit
Amazing to see global solidarity among Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hong Kongers and many others in pursuit of freedom from the CCP
Human Rights Watch says while the French president did not raise the issue publicly on his visit to China last year, he should do so while Xi is in Paris and call for the release of those arbitrarily detained or imprisoned including Ilham Tohti, an Uighur economist who was awarded the Sakharov Prize, Europe’s most prominent human rights award in 2019.
The human rights organisation said Macron should also raise the issue of Tibet, where some 1 million Tibetan children are being placed in boarding schools and separated from their language and culture, and Hong Kong, once the most free territory in China but now subject to two draconian security laws.
“President Macron should make it clear to Xi Jinping that Beijing’s crimes against humanity come with consequences for China’s relations with France,” Maya Wang, the acting China director at Human Rights Watch said in a statement. “France’s silence and inaction on human rights would only embolden the Chinese government’s sense of impunity for its abuses, further fuelling repression at home and abroad.”
On April 30, Macron was pictured at the Elysee Palace with Penpa Tsering, the president of the Tibetan government-in-exile, on the sidelines of a ceremony to honour former Senator Andre Gattolin, a longtime supporter Tibet, who was awarded the Legion d’Honneur.
Tibetans demonstrate in Paris on Sunday as Xi Jinping arrived for a state visit to France [Thomas Padilla/AP Photo]
Penpa Tsering presented the French president with a signed photo of his 2016 meeting with the Dalai Lama and “urged him not to forget Tibet”, according to a report the Central Tibetan Administration.
“We understand that the agenda between the two presidents will be dense given the many international crises such as in Ukraine and in the Middle East, but this must not be done at the expense of exchanges on human rights, which are in a deplorable state throughout the country as well as in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet, where a latent conflict has been going on for over 60 years and poses a threat to regional and international security,” Vincent Metten, the EU policy director for the International Campaign for Tibet said in a statement.
In Freedom House’s 2024 report on Freedom in the World, Tibet’s overall score was zero out of 100; the lowest in at least eight years.
Maryse Artiguelong, the vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), said: “The conflict in Ukraine highlights the threat posed to international order and security by authoritarian regimes such as Russia and the People’s Republic of China. Their aggressive foreign policies and repressive domestic policies are inextricably linked: Anyone who does not oppose China’s human rights violations risks one day facing its aggressive foreign policy.”
Laszlo Kemencei lives as sustainably as possible on his small farm in eastern Hungary. He believes the land is effectively borrowed from his daughter, so he must do all he can to preserve it for the future.
Kemencei, 28, his wife Cintia, 31, and their daughter Boroka, who is almost two, moved to the farm outside Ladanybene three years ago. They keep horses, pigs and chickens on an area of 4.5 hectares (11 acres), which they partly lease for grazing.
They do not use pesticides, keep their animals free range, and dig the land as little as possible to preserve the structure and moisture of the rich soil. They grow their own vegetables and slaughter or barter the meat they need while trading the rest with families who choose a similar lifestyle.
Kemencei says while becoming fully self-sufficient seems an unrealistic goal, they rely minimally on external resources.
“This land, we have not inherited from our fathers, but we have it on a lease from our children … so we try to live and farm the land in a sustainable way,” he says.
While there are no statistics on how many families are following a similar lifestyle in Hungary, anecdotal evidence suggests it is a growing trend.
Some want to rein in their cost of living, while others want to escape a consumer-driven society or live a more environmentally friendly life.
Kemencei estimates there are about 1,000 families trying to embrace some form of sustainability, either alone or as part of informal barter arrangements, or as part of more structured eco-villages.
Currently, they do not live off the grid. They have internet and buy electricity and gas for heating. But their water comes from a well and they hope to install solar panels and a wind turbine when they can afford it, Kemencei says.
They can get by on about 250,000 forints ($690) per month, outside of emergencies. They buy milk, sugar and other essential items that they cannot grow or produce themselves.
The protest was led by Peter Magyar, a former government insider who plans to challenge Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party.
Thousands of people have taken to the streets in downtown Budapest to protest against the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The protest on Saturday was led by Peter Magyar, 43, a former government insider turned critic who used to be married to Orban’s ex-justice minister Judit Varga.
Magyar has said he also plans to challenge Orban’s Fidesz party by eventually launching his own, pro-European Union political party.
On Saturday, reports said more than 10,000 people were expected to join the demonstration.
Protesters marched towards Hungary’s parliament some of them shouting, “We are not scared” and “Orban resign!”
Many wore the red-white-green national colours or carried the national flag, symbols that Orban’s party used as their own for the past two decades.
“These are the national colours of Hungary, not the government’s,” 24-year-old Lejla, who travelled to Budapest from Sopron, a town on the country’s western border, told the Reuters news agency.
Magyar has publicised insider knowledge of the workings of Orban’s government [File: Bernadett Szabo/Reuters]
Magyar became widely known in February when he became the government’s whistleblower and delivered incendiary comments about the inner workings of Orban’s administration.
In March, he published a recording on his Facebook page of a January 2023 conversation with his ex-wife Varga, in which she detailed an attempt by aides to Orban’s cabinet chief, Antal Rogan, to interfere in the prosecution files in a corruption case centred on former Ministry of Justice State Secretary Pal Volner.
“They suggested to the prosecutors what should be removed,” Varga says in the recording.
Magyar said the tape proves top officials in Orban’s government are corrupt, and that he had given the recording to the Metropolitan Public Prosecutor’s Office in Budapest, to be used as evidence.
The office has said it would analyse the tape and further evidence would be collected.
Orban under pressure
This probe has come at a politically sensitive time for Orban in advance of European parliamentary elections in June.
It also follows a sex abuse scandal that brought down two of his key political allies – the former president and Varga – in February.
According to data by pollster Median, published by news weekly HVG in mid-March, 68 percent of voters have heard of Magyar’s entry into the political field and 13 percent of those said that they were likely to support his party.
On Saturday, some protesters also said Magyar appealed to them because he had been close to the Orban government and has an inside knowledge of how it works.
“We had known that there is corruption, but he says it as an insider and confirmed it for us,” Zsuzsanna Szigeti, a 46-year-old healthcare worker wearing a Hungarian flag that covered her entire body, told Reuters.
She added that she was concerned about the education and the healthcare systems, and worried about corruption.
Brazil’s embattled former President Jair Bolsonaro has requested the return of his passport in order to visit Israel, fuelling speculation that he could be seeking respite abroad from his domestic legal troubles.
Defence lawyer and Bolsonaro spokesperson Fabio Wajngarten addressed his request in a social media post on Thursday.
“The defence team of President [Jair Bolsonaro] petitioned the Supreme Court last Monday, on March 25, to request the return of the president’s passport, albeit for a fixed period, with a view to accept an invitation to visit Israel next month,” Wajngarten wrote.
“As is publicly known, international relations are a part of political activity, as well as building dialogue with global leaders.”
Bolsonaro, who served as president from 2019 to 2022, has faced a maelstrom of investigations and legal troubles since leaving office, resulting in the removal of his passport.
One of the latest involved allegations that Bolsonaro, a far-right leader, participated in crafting a draft decree that would have overturned the results of the 2022 presidential election, which he lost.
The draft decree also called for the arrest of several high-profile officials, including Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Critics have compared it to the groundwork for a coup.
In response to the revelations, de Moraes issued an order calling for the seizure of Bolsonaro’s passport and other documents.
Federal police carried out the operation early on February 8, arriving at Bolsonaro’s beach house in Rio de Janeiro and eventually finding the passport at his residence in the capital Brasilia.
Earlier this week, The New York Times reported that surveillance footage showed Bolsonaro arriving at the Hungarian embassy in Brazil shortly after the police raid, on February 12.
He reportedly stayed overnight, leaving two days later on February 14. International law largely prevents police from entering embassies to conduct arrests.
Bolsonaro later acknowledged the two-day visit in an interview with the publication Metropoles, saying, “I’m not going to deny that I was at the embassy, yes. I’m not going to say where else I’ve been.”
But the surveillance video has raised questions over whether Bolsonaro is seeking support — and perhaps political asylum — from fellow far-right leaders, like Hungary’s Viktor Orban.
On Monday, Justice de Moraes ordered on Bolsonaro to account for his actions at the embassy.
Bolsonaro has since said he had no intention of evading possible arrest and that his visit was an effort to foster relations with Hungary.
Meanwhile, Bolsonaro has petitioned the court for his passport to be returned, on the basis that he received an official invitation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The prospective trip would last from May 12 to 18.
It would not be the first time Bolsonaro travelled abroad during a time of mounting political pressure, though.
As his term in office neared its end in late December, Bolsonaro abruptly left Brazil and flew to central Florida, leaving his vice president in charge.
The trip caught many by surprise — and came mere days before his successor, left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was slated to take office.
At the time, Bolsonaro was facing criticism for casting doubt over the 2022 election results, which showed Lula narrowly prevailing in the second round of voting.
He claimed — without evidence — that the vote had been marred by fraud, through the use of electronic voting machines.
Bolsonaro also did not publicly concede defeat, and his supporters had taken to the streets, attacking police facilities and blocking roads. One man, a gas station manager, was even accused of planning to explode a bomb.
Critics speculated that Bolsonaro’s sudden trip to Florida could be a tactic to avoid accountability in Brazil.
While abroad, on January 8, 2023, thousands of his supporters attacked key government buildings in the capital Brasilia. Bolsonaro remains under investigation for any role he may have played in the attack.
Last June, he was barred from running for office until 2030 after a panel of judges found he had used his public office to sow doubt in the country’s electoral system.
PM Viktor Orban tells Hungarian state broadcaster that Trump has a ‘clear vision’ after meeting former US president in Florida.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says former US President Donald Trump has told him that he would “not give a penny” to the war in Ukraine.
Orban related the comments by Trump, who is running in November’s presidential election, during an interview with state broadcaster M1 late on Sunday after he travelled to Florida to meet Trump.
“He has a very clear vision, which is hard not to agree with. He says the following: First of all, he will not give a penny in the Ukraine-Russia war,” Orban said in the interview.
There was no immediate response from Trump’s team on these comments from Orban.
Orban often calls for a ceasefire and peace talks in the Russia-Ukraine war, which recently entered its third year. He also argues Trump is best qualified to end the conflict, having expressed hope for his return to power.
“That is why the war will end because it is obvious that Ukraine cannot stand on its own feet. … If the Americans do not give money, the Europeans alone will not be able to finance this war. And then the war is over,” he said.
A statement from Trump’s campaign did not mention Ukraine but said the pair on Friday discussed issues affecting both nations, including their respective border security.
Orban angered fellow European Union leaders by meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in October and has maintained ties with the Kremlin since Russia invaded Ukraine. He has also spoken out against Western sanctions on Moscow.
US President Joe Biden criticised the Trump-Orban meeting, saying the Hungarian leader was “looking for dictatorship”.
European leaders have long been nervous that another Trump presidency would mean waning US support for both Ukraine and NATO.
Parliament approves appointment of Tamas Sulyok, 67, a Constitutional Court chief, to replace Katalin Novak.
Hungary’s parliament has elected a political novice as president after the resignation of his predecessor, who caused outrage by pardoning a man convicted in a child abuse case.
The affair has turned into the biggest political crisis that nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has faced since his return to power in 2010.
Orban ally Katalin Novak resigned as president this month after it was revealed she had pardoned a convicted child abuser’s accomplice.
Last week, ruling party Fidesz nominated Constitutional Court head Tamas Sulyok, 67, to replace Novak, Hungary’s first female president.
On Monday, parliament, where Fidesz’s ruling coalition with the Christian Democratic People’s Party holds a two-thirds majority, approved his appointment, after which he took the oath of office.
He will become president on March 5.
Little known to the broader public, Sulyok became a Constitutional Court judge in 2014 and, two years later, the court’s head.
The opposition has criticised the nomination of politically inexperienced Sulyok. About 3,000 people attended a Sunday protest by four opposition parties, calling for direct presidential elections. The post is largely ceremonial.
‘Duller presidency’
The Novak scandal broke this month when the news site 444 revealed that she had pardoned the former deputy director of a children’s home last year.
The man was sentenced in 2022 to three years and four months in prison for helping to cover up his boss’s sexual abuse of children and adolescents there.
Tens of thousands of people have protested against the presidential pardon in Hungary, whose government has long campaigned on a pledge to protect children.
Orban has likened the resignation of Novak to a “nightmare” but stressed it was the right decision.
When opening the parliament session on Monday, he described Sulyok as someone with “vast experience, respected knowledge and undisputed authority”.
“I believe that Hungary needs such a president now,” he said.
Under Sulyok, the Constitutional Court made several controversial rulings, including on teachers’ rights to strike.
To calm anger over the pardon scandal, Orban has promised to tighten existing laws to bar convicted child abusers from receiving clemency.
He also wants to vet those working with children to make sure they have passed the “appropriate suitability test”, covering “lifestyle, sexual deviance and psychological fitness”.
Hungary, the last NATO country to approve Sweden’s membership bid, will hold a parliamentary vote on Monday.
Hungary has signed a deal to buy four fighter jets from Sweden, as Budapest finally prepares to approve Stockholm’s bid to join NATO after nearly two years of delays.
“We not only keep our air defence capability but will increase it,” Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a news conference alongside Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Friday of the agreement to buy four Saab JAS Gripen fighter jets.
This “means our commitment to NATO will strengthen and so will our participation in NATO’s joint operations,” Orban added. Hungary will also expand a related logistics contract. It currently leases Gripen aircraft under a contract signed in 2001.
Kristersson welcomed the deal and said that “the conversation has been constructive, and we have agreed to move forward in fields of common interests”.
“We do not agree on everything, but we do agree that we should work more actively together when we have common ground,” he added.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Budapest, Hungary, February 23, 2024 [Bernadett Szabo/Reuters]
Hungary, the final country to approve Sweden’s bid to join the transatlantic military alliance, will hold a vote in parliament on Monday after Turkey’s ratification last month.
The delay in ratifying Sweden’s NATO application soured Budapest’s relations with the United States and raised concerns among its allies.
Finland became the 31st member of the alliance last April, which doubled the length of NATO’s border with Russia. It also strengthened the defences of three small Baltic countries that joined the bloc after the collapse of the Soviet Union more than three decades ago.
Earlier Friday, Orban told state radio that “some pending [bilateral] military and arms issues” had to be resolved before the vote.
“We are pro-peace, and the Swedes are pro-war in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict,” Orban said. adding the “clear differences in values” could be bridged.
Sweden, which has a long coastline on the Baltic Sea, could become a vital logistics hub for NATO in Northern Europe if it manages to join the bloc.
Military non-alignment had once been a point of pride for Swedes, with a clear majority against NATO membership, which changed once the Ukraine war started.
Sweden has already regularly participated in NATO exercises in the region.
Orban, who had maintained close economic ties with Russia, had repeatedly delayed Sweden’s ratification citing grievances over Stockholm’s criticism of the rule of law and the state of democracy in Hungary.
The Hungarian leader, who has also refused to send weapons to Ukraine and slammed Western sanctions against Russia, urged for a ceasefire earlier on Friday.
He said a truce was the only solution as “Russia cannot be forced on its knees in the military sense … This conflict [in Ukraine] has no solution on the battleground”.
Budapest is the only NATO member yet to ratify Stockholm’s membership to the world’s largest military alliance.
The Hungarian parliament can ratify Sweden’s NATO membership when it convenes for its new session later this month, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has told his supporters.
“It’s good news that our dispute with Sweden will soon be settled,” Orban said in his state-of-the-nation address on Saturday in Budapest.
“We are going in the direction that at the start of parliament’s spring session we can ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO.”
Orban highlighted that he and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson had taken steps “to rebuild trust” between the two countries. But he did not say what those steps were.
Hungary is the only NATO country not yet to have ratified Sweden’s application, a process that requires the backing of all NATO members.
Turkey was the only other NATO holdout, but the Turkish parliament voted to approve Swedish membership last month.
Earlier this month, lawmakers from Hungary’s governing Fidesz party boycotted an emergency parliament session in which a vote on Sweden’s bid to join NATO was on the agenda.
Fidesz cited what it called unfounded Swedish allegations that it has eroded democracy in Hungary as the reason why Sweden’s NATO bid had been held up.
Hungarian officials have also indicated that Fidesz lawmakers won’t support holding a vote on Sweden’s NATO bid until Kristersson accepts an invitation by Orban to visit Budapest to negotiate the matter.
On Wednesday, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said his country hoped that Hungary would soon ratify its accession to NATO, removing the last obstacle to its membership.
Billstrom reiterated there would be no negotiations on the ratification despite Orban inviting Kristersson to “negotiate” Sweden’s accession.
“There is nothing to negotiate, if there is a visit, it’s not going to be a negotiation, that has been made very clear by my prime minister,” the Swedish foreign minister said earlier this week.
The delay in ratifying Sweden’s NATO application has also soured Budapest’s relations with the United States and raised concerns among its allies.
US Senator Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat and chairperson of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also raised the prospect of imposing sanctions on Hungary for its conduct and called Orban “the least reliable member of NATO”.
Orban, who has better ties with Russia than other EU states and most NATO members, has repeatedly said his government backs Sweden joining the alliance, but the legislation has been stranded in the Hungarian parliament since mid-2022.
The Hungarian Parliament is scheduled to reconvene on February 26.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie
Duration
Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
