State Secretary for External Economic Relations and Foreign Affairs Péter Szijjártó met with Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China Xiao Qian.

It was announced that a Hungarian cultural institute will be opened in Beijing in addition to which the Chinese-Hungarian and Hungarian-Chinese dictionaries will be available in Hungary again for the first time in 10 years.
State Secretary Péter Szijjártó said that nine EU countries currently have cultural institutes in Beijing and only two of them have independent legal status, so it is a big success that among Central European countries Hungary will be the first to open a cultural institute in the capital. According to the State Secretary, the Hungarian cultural institute will effectively support the development of relations between the two countries and the goal of making Hungary an increasingly important partner of China in the near future.

The State Secretary emphasised that one of the most significant parts of the Opening towards the East policy is the strengthening of strategic relations with China, adding that the governmental agreement and the publishing of dictionaries are success points of this process. The most secure basis of relations between the two countries is friendship, and this in turn may be built most effectively through culture and education.

Ambassador Xiao Qian pointed out that Hungarian-Chinese relations have developed constantly within each field of cooperation including the economy, trade, culture, research, science and investment, adding that Sándor Petőfi poems are already taught in Chinese primary schools and the Kodály Method is used in music education.

(Prime Minister's Office)