Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban met Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday (July 8), days after holding talks on a potential Ukrainian peace deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin that angered some European Union leaders, Reuters reports.
China, which has close ties to Russia, has been promoting a six-point peace plan it issued with Brazil in May, while Orban has kicked off a 'peace mission' following his country assuming the EU's rotating presidency at the beginning of this month.
The Hungarian leader's visit comes after he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv and also went to the Kremlin, a trip that drew a strong rebuke from his allies.
Orban is a critic of Western military aid to Ukraine and is the EU leader with the warmest relations with Xi and Putin.
His trip to China comes days ahead of a NATO summit that will address providing further support to Ukraine and follows the European Commission confirming last week that it will impose tariffs of up to 37.6% on imports of electric vehicles made in China.
