The Guardian-China offers to deepen security ties with Hungary
February 19, 2024 3 min 510 words
中国提出加强与匈牙利的安全合作，这突显了在匈牙利与欧盟及北约盟友关系陷入低谷之际，布达佩斯与北京的关系日益密切。匈牙利总理维克托·奥尔班上周会见了中国公安部部长王小洪。王小洪在中国官方新华社周末发表的评论中表示，他希望在“打击恐怖主义、打击跨国犯罪、安全和执法能力建设以及一带一路倡议下深化合作”。据中国部长称，目标是使“执法和安全合作成为双边关系的新亮点”。作为欧盟和北约成员国，匈牙利接受中国的提议颇具不寻常性。布达佩斯与莫斯科的关系较其他欧盟成员国更密切，去年，奥尔班是唯一出席北京一带一路倡议论坛的欧盟领导人。在与王的会谈声明中，奥尔班的发言人表示：“国际外交中逐渐缺乏尊重，但在匈中关系中一直存在。”随着匈牙利与欧盟及北约盟友的关系陷入低谷，与北京加强安全合作的前景出现。匈牙利在慕尼黑安全会议上缺席，展示了其孤立状态。在周末的演讲中，奥尔班表示，匈牙利“正朝着在议会春季会议初批准瑞典加入北约的方向迈进”。在与美国代表团拒绝会晤的同时，匈牙利与西方盟友的紧张关系持续加剧。这一情况突显了匈牙利对外交行动的选择，以及在国内政治压力和总统辞职引发的丑闻中，奥尔班对于美国总统唐纳德·特朗普的支持。
China has offered to deepen security cooperation with Hungary, underscoring Budapest’s warming ties with Beijing just as Hungarian officials snubbed a visiting delegation from Washington.
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, met with China’s minister of public security, Wang Xiaohong, on Friday.
In comments published by China’s official Xinhua news agency over the weekend, Wang said he was hoping to “deepen cooperation in areas including counter-terrorism, combating transnational crimes, security and law enforcement capacity building under the Belt and Road Initiative”.
The aim, according to the Chinese minister, would be “to make law enforcement and security cooperation a new highlight of bilateral relations”.
Hungary is a member of both the EU and Nato, making China’s offer highly unusual.
Budapest, which also maintains closer links to Moscow than any other EU member, has been nurturing a relationship with Beijing. Last year, Orbán was the only EU leader to attend a forum of the Belt and Road Initiative in Beijing. China’s electrical vehicle manufacturer BYD has said it will open its first European production factory in Hungary.
In a statement about Friday’s meeting with Wang, a spokesperson for Orbán said the prime minister had declared that “respect is increasingly missing from international diplomacy, but it has always remained between Hungary and China”.
“The negotiating parties drew attention to the importance of security and stability,” the spokesperson said.
The prospect of greater security cooperation between Budapest and Beijing comes at a time when Hungary’s relationship with its EU and Nato allies is at a low point.
While Hungary’s standing in western capitals has been deteriorating for years, for many officials Budapest’s decision to renege on a promise not to be the last to ratify Sweden’s Nato bid has further undermined trust.
Budapest’s isolation was demonstrated over the weekend at the Munich security conference, from which senior Hungarian officials were absent.
However, in a speech in Hungary on Saturday, Orbán signalled a shift, announcing that “we are on course to ratify Sweden’s accession to Nato at the beginning of parliament’s spring session”.
The continued strain was on full display over the weekend, as Hungarian officials refused to meet with visitors from Washington.
“Allies have been awaiting Hungary’s action on Sweden’s accession to Nato for 21 months,” the US ambassador in Budapest, David Pressman, wrote on social media.
“Regrettably, a range of senior Hungarian government officials and Fidesz parliamentary representatives declined to meet with the most senior US bipartisan congressional delegation to visit Hungary in years,” he added.
In his weekend speech, Orbán – who is facing domestic political pressure and protests amid a scandal that led to the resignation of the country’s president – made his preferences clear.
“We cannot interfere in other countries’ elections, but we would very much like to see President Donald Trump return to the White House and make peace here in the eastern half of Europe.”