Hungarian leader Viktor Orban meets Xi in China after talks with Putin

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Monday, seeking to secure a new authoritarian partner following talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week.

Announcing Mr Orban’s visit to Beijing, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported just said that Mr Xi would have “in-depth discussions with him on issues of mutual concern.” The leaders last met two months ago, when Mr Xi visited Budapest as part of a campaign to restore Chinese influence in Europe.

Chinese state television reported that Xi and Orban held talks at the Diaooyutai State Guesthouse, but gave no further details.

The meeting gives Mr. Xi and Mr. Orban, an outlier in the European Union on support for Ukraine and other issues, a chance to push the bloc to distance itself from Washington. Hungary this month began its six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, giving Mr. Orban a higher profile, if not much more influence, in broader European affairs.

“Our two countries, China and Hungary, have similar philosophies and both value independence and acting on their own initiative,” Xi told Orban in May, according to a official chinese summary of their conversations.

Western European leaders have long distanced themselves from Mr. Orban, and when he visited Moscow last week they insisted he was not speaking for the European Union. They are likely to take a similarly sceptical view of Mr. Orban’s talks with Mr. Xi in Beijing, in which the two leaders are expected to discuss the war in Ukraine.

Mr. Orban’s visit to China comes ahead of a three-day NATO summit in Washington beginning Tuesday, at which President Biden and other Western leaders are likely to offer Ukraine more support in its war against the Russian invasion, but not the NATO membership that its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has been pushing for.

Mr Orban described his journey to Beijing as a continuation of a mission for “peace” for Ukraine, a term Hungary has used to describe a settlement based on Ukraine’s capitulation to Russian demands. His visit to Russia last week was the first time a European Union leader has gone there for official talks with Mr. Putin since the early months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Before visiting Moscow, Mr Orban met Mr Zelensky in Kiev, in what observers saw as a move by the Hungarian leader to try to end his isolation in Europe over Ukraine. His visits to Ukraine, Russia and China were unannounced.

Orban has called on Moscow and Kiev to broadly agree to a ceasefire and direct talks, but he has made no specific public proposals for a lasting solution.

Similarly, Xi has promoted a vague framework for peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, while taking care to maintain strong ties with Putin.

The talks between Orban and Xi provide an opportunity for them to highlight their shared antipathy towards Western security alliances and criticism of human rights.

Mr. Orban, once a critic of China’s ruling Communist Party, has become a loyal partner, often pushing back against European Union criticism of China’s hardline policies in Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang, the western region where Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups have been jailed en masse.

In May, Mr Xi and Mr Orban spoke officially elevated Relations between China and Hungary are an “all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership” – Chinese diplomatic terminology that indicates a deep and enduring bond.

“We see each other as a priority partner for cooperation,” said Mr. Xi then wrote of relations with Hungary.