BEIJING, October 29 (People’s Daily Online)— As Europe is losing her competitiveness, Hungary has come up with an idea that “eastern partnership of Europe Union should be accelerated,” said Peter Szijjarto, Minister of Foreign Affairs and trade of Hungary.

In a speech themed “Challenges Facing the European Union” at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing on Oct. 27, 2014, Szijjarto said as a typical central European country in the EU, Hungary rises to the challenge of the EU and adopts the “Opening to the East” foreign policy targeting external economic cooperation with the emerging economies in the world.

Szijjarto explains the necessity of this foreign policy. As a very open economy, the success of Hungarian economy depends on the achievement of its export. Naturally, the development of Hungary requires a sound and viable foreign policy and external foreign economic strategy. Szijjarto believes that the “Opening to the East” policy will bring more contacts with the emerging economies and create a balanced external economic cooperation for Hungary.

With Hungarian efforts to expand economic cooperation with China, the last decade witnessed the great success in the Sino-Hungarian economic cooperation. In 2013, the bilateral trade volume has increased by 6 times, topping 8.06 billion USD. Moreover, Szijjarto also emphasized the role of China in the development of infrastructure in Europe. In his opinion, the capital from China is vital as it is difficult for EU member states like Hungary to build infrastructure on themselves.

Apart from economic cooperation with China, Hungary also gives a serious thought to the cultural exchanges and educational cooperation with China. "The long-term economic cooperation is based on mutual benefits only if person-to-person contacts have been established," said Szijjarto. Hungary is the third EU member state having a cultural institution in Beijing. Hungary has three Confucius Institute as of Oct. 27, 2014. Moreover, a regional Confucius centre will be built in Budapest.

Despite the fruitful cooperation between China and Hungary, the “Opening to the East” policy causes a debate in Europe. Some European people accuse Hungary of showing her back to her traditional partners such as EU member states by adopting this policy.

In response to this argument, Szijjarto said that this new policy aims at creating a balanced external economic cooperation by expanding the cooperation with emerging economies. "The cooperation with China is essential to Europe," said Szijjarto.