China’s Xi receives ceremonial welcome in Hungary ahead of talks with Orbán

By BELA SZANDELSZKY
Associated Press

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping has received a ceremonial welcome in Hungary’s capital ahead of a day of talks with Hungarian officials expected to result in further Chinese investments in the Central European country. Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok received Xi on Thursday in an opulent courtyard of Budapest’s Buda Castle, where the two men listened to the Chinese and Hungarian national anthems. Present at the ceremony was Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s long-serving populist leader who has pursued deeper ties with Beijing while distancing himself from his more mainstream partners in the European Union. Xi arrived in Hungary late Wednesday in a European tour that also took in Serbia and France.