Hungary’s Orban unexpectedly visits China, backs Xi’s peace plan

Reuters:

BEIJING/BUDAPEST, July 8 – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday to discuss a potential Ukraine peace deal, paying the unexpected visit to Beijing days after his talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin angered some European Union leaders.

Orban and Xi met at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing, Chinese state media reported, for what Orban described as the third leg of a “peace mission” that he has undertaken without the backing of the European Commission or Ukraine.

While Hungary just assumed the EU’s rotating presidency this month, Orban has already met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv and been received by the Kremlin, a trip that drew a strong rebuke from his allies.

“Peace Mission 3.0.,” Orban, a critic of Western military aid to Ukraine and the EU leader with the warmest relations with Xi and Putin, said on his official X account as he touched down in Beijing.

China, which has close ties to Russia, has been promoting a six-point peace plan it issued with Brazil in May, proposing an international peace conference “at a proper time” and calling for equal participation by both Ukraine and Russia.

Ukraine is hoping to win broad global backing for its proposals on how to end the war with Russia before beginning discussions with Putin, holding a huge international summit last month in Switzerland to which Moscow was not invited.