The collapse of economic cooperation between the European Union and China would have tragic consequences, which is why Hungary rejects any such initiative, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in Budapest on Thursday.

According to the ministry's statement, the head of the ministry II. At the Hungarian Battery Day conference, first of all mentioning the current extraordinary circumstances, he emphasized that, in an unprecedented way, in less than three years, the world economy has turned upside down twice.

In his opening speech, he stated that the world is on the threshold of a new era, so there is a lot of uncertainty to be reckoned with, but one thing is certain, the most decisive economic process of our time, the automotive revolution, is moving forward unabated.

The automotive industry accounts for about 30 percent of Hungary's economic performance, so this means a lot of tasks for our country, but also a huge opportunity, he pointed out.

Péter Szijjártó warned that the European economy is moving towards recession, and the government's goal is for Hungary to stay out of this and become a local exception. According to his words, it is necessary to attract as many investments as possible, and electromobility has huge potential in this field, so the government has provided financing for 44 investments in this sector in the last five years.

"Since 2010, we have made it clear that our strategy is to be the meeting point between Western and Eastern investors and economies," he said.

He cited as an example that, apart from Germany and China, only Hungary has the production base of all three large premium German car brands, while our country currently has the third largest electric battery production capacity in the world, while it ranks fifth in the export ranking.

He added: two of the world's six leading electric battery manufacturers are already present, and in the case of the Chinese CATL, which announced the largest ever investment in Hungary, this is in progress.

"The fact that the investment record was broken last year and this year also shows that we are managing to stay out of the recession for the time being," he underlined.

The minister also touched on the strategy of opening up to the east, the success of which, according to him, is supported by the dynamic expansion of investments.

He praised Hungary's investment environment, low taxes, various financial incentives, and secure energy supply. As he said, the government places particular emphasis on the latter, treating it not as an ideological or political but a simple physical issue, even if it "occasionally generates extremely sharp debates".

Mentioning the negative consequences of the war in Ukraine, he pointed out that the threads of cooperation between Russia and the European Union are being cut one after the other, but it would be important to avoid this happening in the case of China, which is considered the largest trading partner.

"We, who operate on the basis of common sense and are much less trapped by ideological or political approaches, will do our best to reject initiatives aimed at destroying European-Chinese economic cooperation," he said.

Source: Magyar Hírlap

Featured image: MN/previous recording